Submitter: Philip Claydon

Community: Kamloops

Date Submitted: October 20, 2023

Summary:

Ensuring that future generations have the opportunity to enjoy, harvest and celebrate Pacific salmon requires transparent, accountable and well-funded leadership; an increase in the monetary value of fish; an active and effective system of volunteers to protect fish ecosystems and engage the public; the restriction of commercial fishing to selective methods and locations along the Fraser River; and the expansion of sport fishing opportunities.

Submission:

I am not available to present at the Inquiry session in Kamloops. Thank you for the opportunity to respond in writing.



I am a retired school principal who has co authored Salmonids in the Classroom when it was first written. I have led a group of volunteers building and operating a small coho hatchery near Heffley Lake which was supported by the Salmonid Enhancement Program. I am an avid sports fisherman.





Vision



I would like my children and their children to have the same opportunity to enjoy, harvest and celebrate all five species of Pacific salmon and steelhead.



What is required



Leadership is required. That leaderships major goal should be to facilitate perpetual healthy fish stocks. It should have transparent and accountable leaders with resources . Its headquarters should be in British Columbia.

A higher monetary value should be placed on the fish. You don’t see Inquiries on high value items like gold…. Don’t deny access to fishing opportunities or areas. Just make it a little more expensive with the money going into providing effective leadership.

Continue to reduce commercial fishing. It is too efficient and reduces the value of the resource. If you can’t do that only allow commercial trolling with limited boat size and crew. Increase opportunity for sports fishing but make us pay a little more.



Habitat Issues



Protect our fish eco systems from creeks to oceans with an effective leadership organization. Engage an active system of volunteers. There are so many people who want to help. Volunteers should be in every facet of field and office work. It will take resources to organize volunteers so that they get direction and feedback and, guess what, they work for the love of it.





Harvesting.



Most of the harvesting except for non commercial methods should be done at the mouth of the river, along the way and near the spawning grounds. The method should be selective and efficient. It would promote more exact escapement for spawning and preservation of other species. The key is get the true value of the fish while giving lots of opportunity for all to participate.



Access to sport fishing opportunities for sockeye is extremely important to me. For example only a few spots were open for sport fishing on the Thompson River. At the Savona bridge where I fished you had to get there as early as 3:00 am to get a good spot. During that time a native fishery was going on in the midst of it all. Why wasn’t the whole river open? Opening the whole river would have made the experience much more enjoyable.





Citizen participation



Set up an effective volunteer support system. Hire people to co ordinate and set up systems to engage, train and give on going feedback to all volunteers. Community advisors worked well but was only a start.