To the editor,
Re: Fisheries Department announces chinook fishing restrictions in B.C., April 17.
What a disaster for salmon fishing. I live in Nanaimo and we used to have good fishing in the Strait of Georgia. Over the years it has diminished year after year and eventually, if we wanted to catch salmon, we had to go to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Now even the local orcas are not getting enough salmon to sustain their pods. This did not happen suddenly. It happened over several years. What has happened suddenly is fisheries has become aware.
I don’t know what the fisheries are working on now, but I know that they haven’t been working at our local waters for years. Now our salmon fishing is in a disaster situation. I hope it is not too late to save the salmon.
It seems there must be a lot of money in herring eggs. The commercial fishing boats take as much as fisheries will allow. They then take the eggs from the fish and the fish body is ground up for animal food. This is all to the detriment of salmon. It will take years and years to get the herring the way it used to be and to get the salmon back the way it used to be.
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Bob Armstrong, Nanaimo
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