Article Title: Reply to Dr.Fish/Coho Skeena

Author: Dr. Fish Date: 7/13/98.

Denise, this is a very important and complex question you pose.
I would like others to respond to this question as well. It is
unfortunate that politics is really clouding the issue. It
seems to be a classic case of "our scientists are better than
your scientists" Alaska believes that the Skeena Coho can
stand to be harvested. Our Canadian scientists have closed the
fishery. I have heard via my uncle in Terrace that a commercial
fisherman friend of his fishing for Chinook kept catching Coho
so he stopped fishing. It should be noted that there will always
be an incidental catch ie. when fishing for one species another
species will also get caught accidentally.

Another factor that clouds the waters (so to speak) is that
we have a jurisdictional problem with the Province of B.C. and
the Federal Gov't. The Federal Gov't is constitutionally
responsible for Coho in the Skeena and the Pacific Salmon Treaty
but Premier Clark is being quite confrontational.

It is my PERSONAL belief that we should err on the side
of the fish and have a moritorium on targeted Coho fishing
on both sides of the boarder. Coho are in trouble all over our
coast and are, I believe, an indicator that the ecosystem is in
precarious health.

I have down loaded several articles and "backgrounders" from both
the Alaska Department of Fish and Game web site and the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans web site. They are in a binder in our
Library at the TeleLearning Center. If you would like to browse
your self the ULR's are:
http://www.pac.dfo.ca/comm ( Canada)
http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife/wildmain.htm (Alaska)
http://www.elp.gov.bc.ca:80/fsh/ (B.C. Fisheries)

quite confrontational

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