sheltered in the back country

 Teal joins the Super Island adventurers , with Jack and Brody.  It was very windy last night and still some blowing this morning in exposed areas , but we head toward the mountains and find lots of nice calm places behind the islands.  Some of the previous guests would have loved to see the whales we saw today. 

 It is different every day.  You just don't know what will turn up.  Teal caught the salmon today, and we sampled several small ones for the DNA study. 

 And we passed a humpback whale on the trip back . 

rick@gobrightfish.com

250 830 8680

www.gobrightfish.com

  

Zoom !

 Diane, Brody, Chloe, and Logan make the next team from Super Island.  We head out for yesterday's hotspot.  It is pretty good there with smaller fish and we take tissue samples of quite a few, and Diane becomes a specialist at helping with that.  After a while we move on a little further around the corner into the glacial tinted water.  Some bites and a release , and then Chloe gets a strong bite and a fish that zooms out line , and hey, Logan has one on, too !  Logan gets the twin up close enough where we get a look before it shakes the hook .

Meanwhile Chloe has a mile of line to wind up.  The fish and angler both get tired muscles. 

We tried the hot spot on the way back , and had a good bite and chance at another. It is all fun, and one fish like this adds a lot to the pantry.  It is different every day. 

Thanks Diane for the extra photos. 

rick@gobrightfish.com

250 830 8680

www.gobrightfish.com

  

sharing the experience

 It was a day for exploring and fishing from "Super Island" with Stephanie and Jason , and teenagers Jack and Brody. Everyone joined in to make a great time.

 There is  more than one family at the "camp" , and this crew was selected to go together because they are thought to be the keenest to stay out longer.  Well , they certainly proved their worth as we went for hours , trying several spots, and going further, before we got the first bite. Thank you for your terrific attitudes and patience ! Then it was game on . Jason did a lot of the steering when the fishing end of the boat got busy .  We released several smaller fish and Stephanie helped with taking tissue samples and sticking the bit in the book. The lads did most of the catching, but, hey, someone has to do it.  The fish had lunch at noon, and then we brought them back for dinners. 

Thanks Stephanie, for the extra pictures. 

rick@gobrightfish.com

250 830 8680

www.gobrightfish.com

  

Salmon Farms Must Go

The Pacific Salmon Foundation ( PSF ) and the Sport Fishing Institute ( SFI ) have recently made public statements against salmon farms. 

  PSF is involved with the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative , including some DFO scientists and Genome BC, which is finding a link to the virus PVR , common in fish farms, and risk to wild chinook salmon. 

Salmon Virus https://www.psf.ca/news-media/prv-virus-may-cause-disease-chinook-salmon 

PSF position on fish farms https://www.psf.ca/news-media/pacific-salmon-foundation-position-aquaculture-bc

SFI position on fish farms, http://sportfishing.bc.ca/fish-farming-2/ , is to support Wild First , rather than duplicate efforts of another organization.

Wild First  http://www.wildfirst.ca/ 

And SFI gives an additional link to “A Case for Caution” , by Tony Allard  http://sportfishing.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Case-for-Caution.pdf 

 There has been a law suit which was won, to stop fish farms from continuing putting PVR infected young fish from their hatcheries out into ocean pens where they can infect migrating wild salmon. The fish farm industry is big and powerful and it seems their main argument is simply financial loss. The judgment  was clear, but DFO is ignoring it, which is outrageous. So Alexandra Morton and a First Nation, have filed additional lawsuits which will be heard in September.   http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/ 

 This is just the recent news in 30 years of unacceptable risks to wild salmon from fish farms.  I won’t try to sum up here, except to say that there is this recent swell of notables opposing fish farms, which seems like good news, except that the science that brings them is bad news.  In the past it seemed like Alexandra Morton was alone leading this charge. 

 The first step now is found best on Alexandra’s blog.  The Province of BC holds the leases for fish farms , and several of these are coming up for renewal.

 http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

“ The Minister of Fisheries is lost to us.

However, Premier John Horgan is the industry's landlord and he will decide on June 20th whether to perpetuate this nightmare and issue tenure renewals for 1/4 of the industry as their licences expire.

I am not sure what else you need to know to take action with us.  

Tell Horgan he must not renew salmon farm tenures in Musgamagw, Namgis territories, the Broughton Archipelago

Premier Horgan's contact info:

250-387-1715

premier@gov.bc.ca

PO BOX 9041, STN PROV GOVT, VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1  “

 Please help save the future of wild salmon. please contact Premier Horgan and tell him not to renew the salmon farm leases coming up for renewal.

 Ask you grocer or restaurant  if the salmon is farmed, and tell them you will not buy that.

 thank you,

 Rick

rick@gobrightfish.com

250 830 8680

www.gobrightfish.com

  

feeding the fish

 I took a turn feeding the chinook smolts, and took some photos on this sunny day.  The weather has turned from cool and stormy when we put the fish in , to hot now.  There has been algae growing on the net ,  restricting the water flow, and lowering the available oxygen level .  So the fish were released today , about a week ahead of the preferred schedule.
 These are young chinooks being helped along by the hatchery system to spend the rest of their lives as wild fish. Hatcheries are not to be confused with salmon farms.  (See blog post April 11 )
 Bon Voyage little fish .  Come back big and strong.

A little fishing on the way

 Shamra and I did a little fishing on the way , on a trip to see HM out in the islands , to talk about a carpentry project, really.  What a lovely day. 

The bald eagle's head is just showing above this nest.  She is probably sitting on an egg or two.  

pipe line delivery of chinook salmon

We helped deliver the chinook smolts today , as we do every spring . These are young chinook salmon from the Quinsam Hatchery, a tributary of the Campbell River .  Instead of swimming downstream in the river to the sea, they've had a ride in a tank truck and then pumped through a pipe into this pen in the marina. These little ones will spend a few weeks in this pen , being fed twice a day , while they get accustomed to the ocean water .  Then they will be released to find their way up the coast with their wild relatives in their far northern migration . We'll anticipate their return in three , four, or five years with some of them over thirty pounds , the famous Campbell River Tyees.  

 Several of us from the Campbell River Guides Association volunteer to help the Quinsam Hatchery  crew . This date was scheduled in advance and as luck would have it, it blew a real storm with harsh rain and cold wind. These are all outdoorsy guys, dressed in foul weather gear, and cheerful throughout.  There is some muscle power needed to drag the hose sections down the dock and then to drag them back and roll them up onto the trailer. There are two other pens in marinas along the waterfront . 

 In other years the weather has been fair and bright for nicer photos. As in the past I have marvelled , and noted in this blog, how fascinating it is to see the shapes of these fish facing into the current as they are flowing downstream in the translucent pipe.  Then, when the water leaves the pipe in a little waterfall, they turn themselves with great agility and dive in headfirst !  

 Stay well little salmon, and come back big and strong .  

rick@gobrightfish.com

250 830 8680

www.gobrightfish.com