| B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 20, 2006 MARGARET SPEIRS It SKEENA ANGLER -ROB BROWN_ " On the backs of fish . head, no crisis for sockeye, but there was a major crisis for fishermen and shore work- ‘said a jubilant Gary Coons, MLA for ‘Prince Rupert, at the news that the Federal Depart-. ment of Fisheries and Oceans had issued permis- . Sion to the commercial . fishing fleet for another sockeye opening. : _ Also vigourously applauding and lauding DFO’ S ‘decision to ignore the pleas of the Ministry of the ‘Environment and permit another opening were ’ Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen and Joy Thorkelson of the UFAWU, all of whom had exerted pressure on | the fisheries managers and their bosses to make the fishery happen. - Thorkelson’s actions and her reaction to the an- nouncement are no surprise. The commercial fish- “ing industry i is so self absorbed — especially during | lean economic times — that it will fish to the last fish’. ‘if allowed to do SO. + >, . Proof of this can be found i in collapsing fisheries all over the globe « and in particular the cod fishery on our east coast, ‘where, despite no evidence of re- covery after a decade of-closure, some fishers are still clamouring for fishing opportunities. To. deal with this characteristic of the exploita- tion of common property resources, governments form agencies, in this case DFO and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to do the right thing by fish based on the best science available. “Mayor Pond’s wilful ignorance and grandstand- ing are understandable. No. matter what fishing industry apologists say, wild salmon stocks have dwindled on the north coast, the mill at Port Ed is still shut, the price of Canuck coal is depressed and the much heralded container port may not be the ‘giant windfall it’s been touted to be. Times are tough in Rupert. The mayor knows he must hop on every putative economic bandwagon that rolls along, and the harder he waves the city flag the more likely he is to get re-elected. The actions of New Democrats MP Cullen and MLA Coons are harder to explain and excuse. Us* ing political clout to make resource managers do the wrong thing by fish is just plain wrong. Coons’ assessment of the plight of shore workers is correct, His take on the status of salmon stocks i 1S dead wrong. Despite what MLA Coons says, there has been a sockeye conservation crisis in Skeena since before the construction of the spawning channels in Fulton | -River and Pinkut Creek. The construction of those channels was a grand government subsidy to the commercial fishing in- «dustry and a huge ecological disaster. By enhanc- -ing the stocks two ‘Babine streams, the DFO fish culturists set in motion a mixed stock interception problem that persists to this day. More boats caught more sockeye for decades, but since a Kitwanga sockeye. or a Morice sockeye is indistinguishable from a-Pinkut-or-Fulton sock- eye and all are subject to the same kill rate, the un- enhanced wild sockeye were fished down year after year. ' This goes a long way to explain why a shadow run of about 1.000 sockeye — the remnant of a run of approximately 75.000 fish ~ returns to the Kitwanga River these days. And why the sockeye of the upper Morice are flagging. And why the sockeye bound . for the streams flowing into Babine Lake other than Pinkut and Fulton are dramatically reduced. Coho, chinook and steelhead paid the same price for having migratory times that overlap that of BIG Sockeye. “After over a century of heavy exploitation at the hands of an industry that has really only paid lip service to selective fishing methods, the Skeena fishery is less biologically diverse and less sustain- "able, and the problem grows each season, * _ Shilis for the fishing industry will always try to argue that the non-targetted salmonids are more abundant than they are. This data death dance is insupportable because the methods used to gather the numbers are akin to doing eye surgery with a crosscut saw. Even so. using the best numbers we have from the Tyee Test Fishery 2006, we can see that early in the season. when the first of the summer steelhead passes through the lower reaches of the Skeena bound, for the headwaters of the Skeena, the index shows that day after day no steelhead were netted. When the fishery was closed a few were caught. When it opened, the index flatlined again. In 2006 a low steelhead return coincided with a robust sockeye return and this led to conservation disaster. As they cheer their victory, Coons. Cullen et. al. should realize that they have held up a huge hairy middle finger to the resource users upstream and, more importantly, they have discounted the needs of salmon. here was no conservation crisis for steel- ' DANIEL 'WITTKOWSKI, left, wallops Darryl Bjorgaard during the demolition derby warmup | round at the speedway. ‘Sept. 10. Witkowski came out to compete in this, his only, event of the season and drove away with the victory, a trophy and $500. Bjorgaard took second and _Al Stewart was third. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO Demolition derby victor | By MARGARET SPEIRS A DRIVER who only competes at the demolition derby smashed his way to the victory and even Steered his ‘ “scrap metal” remains back to the pits afterward. Daniel Wittkowski, ‘who came third in the de- molition derby three years ago in a.Honda com- ‘pact, maneuvered his station, wagon around the muddy infield and front stretch of the track, tak- ing out as many of his competitors as Possible for the win. Darryl Bjorgaard finished second and Al Stew- | , art came third. At one point, Wittkowski_ tangled with Bjor- gaard, hitting him so hard the duo kept on sliding | down the‘front stretch together all the way to the tires marking the end of the derby area. Partway through the action, stock car associa- “tion member Blair Loset blew the air horn.to end the warmup round, Drivers” motofed on into the pits-or let tow trucks haul them in for some hasty repairs before the final heat. A small bobcat, one of Wittkowski’s sponsors, used its bucket to pull dents out of his car, — As Wittkowski headed back to the track, a. member of his pit crew exclaimed: “Unbeliev- able, it still drives.” Back on the track, drivers wasted no time slam- ming new dents into each other. Wittkowski struck hard and often, ending up: stalled at the edge of the demo area along the wall. For a moment, it seemed like all the vehicles -were dead, then Wittkowski’s rumbled to life and began moving, making him the winner.. “1m like ‘come on start’,” he said. “I was just about thinking of putting my flag up and finally it started again.” — ‘He'said his car stalled after he smashed another car and crashed into the wall to slow down since his car didn’t have any brakes. “No, I didn’t know I had won at that point. I went back and hit one car. I looked up at the flag guy and saw the red flag and realized’ I had won,” he said. His strategy involved hitting hard and using his back end to ensure no one could get close to his radiator. The vehicle had concrete inside the driver’s side door but next year’s model will also have a leaves competition in mud concrete- filled passenger door for more safety. When. he hit the wall at one point,. another driver hanimered his passenger side, which nearly caved in on him. Wittkowski said the car was pretty ‘much fin- ished off — the rear end was crunched up at an angle that forced the rear bumper to scrape on the pavement and the driver’s side front tire was tilted in toward the frame — but he was able to salvage the engine and transmission. He plans to put his $500 prize money toward next season’s vehicle. ' Here are the winners of the races on the final day of the season at the speedway: - Bomber heat — Dan Dollemore Appliance race — Corinne Downing Bag race — driver James Webb and navigator Lindsay Bjorgaard Obstacle race — Al Stewart ATV: race 600cc and over — Mike Haugland ATV race 500cc and under — Greg Porter ATV junior race winners — Keenan Roy, Jer- emy Beaudette, Colten Loset, Connor: Onstein, Tyler Therrien : Demolition derby — Daniel Wittkowski Firefighters challenge — Chad Gerow Cattle ‘sorters ride out cool final DESPITE the cool weather, cattle sorters corralled plenty of bovines at the final event of the season Sept. 9. . Among the premade _ teams, first place went to Lory Howard, Danita Petch and teammate for sorting 24 cattle. The — three-generation “team of Kalen Rempel, Kim Rempel and Marg Rempel took second place with 21 cattle sorted. Lyn. Rempel, Jason ‘Rempel and Kim Rempel sorted 20 cows to tie for third with James Muller, Joey Muller and | Danny Muller. The fastest sort of 10 cattle clocked in at 1:09:51 by the premade team of Lyn Rempel, Jason Rem- pel and Kim Rempel. The random team cate- ‘gory victory went to Cin- = Face off CHRIS KERR, left, and Parrish Miller are ready to play ball hockey at the new hockey pitch remodelled out of one of the tennis courts behind Thornhill Junior Secondary Sept. 12. The pair, who are employees of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine works and services department, spent the day pressure washing the court, one of its final touches. Supervisor Darry! Bjorgaard said he believes the pitch is the first in the | northwest and will be used for lacrosse as well. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO dy Hansen, Danny Muller and Vera Heaman with 24 cows sorted. Merkel and ‘Marge Olsori sorted 16 cows for second place. _ Lyn. Rempel, Jessica Canucks still heard on CFNR for the Canucks since the team start- ed playing in the NHL 36 years ago, but the station was outbid by sports rival Team 1040 this year. ‘John Shorthouse and Tom Lars- cheid have also moved over from CKNW to 1040 so the radio voices won't change either. By ROD LINK LOCAL VANCOUVER Canucks fans need not fear that a switch in broadcasting stations down south this year will affect programming up here. CFNR spokesman Steve Lit- tle says itl] be carrying Canucks 1040. games as always despite a switch down south from CKNW to Team “We are definitely carrying the Canucks. We already carry [B.C.] Lions games through 1040,” he said. CKNW had been the host station There'll be no change. Mikolayczyk and Freddy Merkel sorted 13 cattle for third. The fastest sort of 10 cattle by a random team was 1:19:52 from Cindy Reid, Dieter Arnold and Joey Muller. Twenty-four riders and 22 teams took part in the event and finished as the rain started, nd Dieter Arnold, Freddy .