a4 ve B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 9, 2006 4 ; 4 4 MARGARET SPEIRS pom en ren wot ae ted " Fishtopia very’ time there’ san opening ‘the test index ‘for steelhead is zero,” Bill Burkland wrote me recently. “What in the heck is going on?” Sg ~ Bill is an accomplished angler, and veteran ° - steelheadér who has fished rainbow trout in waters: as diverse as New Mexico’s San Juan River, the “blue ribbon streams of Montana, the: Stellako, and ‘the Babine... » "He’s stalked summer steelhead on the rivers of | --Eastern Washington State and on the streams that — irrigate the. forests.of: the North Coast, but it’s the _ Morice, a river he’s fished for 40 years, that has a special place in his.heart. It’s easy to.understand why. The Morice i is one -of those beautiful freestone rivers that’s at its best, in fall dress when most of its steelhead have re- turned home. “And what fish they are: strong, aggressive steel- - head 1 more than willing to.climb the water column and intercept a'fly on or near the surface! Traits that make them the ideal quarry for the Bill and the oth- _ er anglers who prefer light rods». smaller flies and ' buoyant lines. ‘.There’s a strong suspicion: that the Morice are : among the first to pass through the net fisheries in _ Chatham Sound, which explains Bill’s discomfort -when the test boat at Tyee brings in set after set . absent of steelhead. I told him to ask his question of DFO. After I ’ offered that advice, I realized that, in all honesty, we both know the answer. We are probably expe- riencing the worst steelhead return in history con- _ currently with a huge return of sockeye. The worst : Case scenario is unfolding. DFO puts the sockeye return at between two to three million fish. They have allowed the fleet to fish aggressively for the last two weeks in July with the result that the aggregate exploitation rate is around 31 per cent. Even so, by the managers’ reckoning, too many fish are reaching the river. As a result, after giving the gillnet fleet ample opportunity to catch the fish, they have allowed the seine fleet access to the approach waters on the inside known as 4-12 and 4-15 in hopes they can “catch sockeye. I'suspect that this strategy has been implement- ed by the DFO managers in the hope that there are fewer steelhead, chum and coho returning with the ~ targeted sockeye. — -You have to sympathize with DFO. Given the present structure of the Skeena fishery, they are he- roically trying to manage the unmanageable. -Significant changes have been made to the Skeena fishery since the unrest of 1990's. Gillnetters have reduced the net mesh sizes, tak- ‘en holding tanks and boxes aboard, adopted shorter nets and embraced shorter sets. Seiners have started brailing. The number of openings has been reduced along with the number of boats fishing each open- Ting. Additionally, the number of openings in August, which was assumed to be the peak migration time for summer steelhead, has been reduced dramati- - cally. As any commercial fisher will tell you, none of these changes came without pain. All the changes and more notwithstanding, we - are still faced with the extirpation of steelhead and discrete runs of coho, chinook and even sockeye. The whole is the sum of its parts and, as intel- . . ligent people everywhere now agree, the health of the whole is compromised in direct proportion to the loss of its parts — this is the principle biologists call bio-diversity. , Adherence to this principle dictates that fisheries, managers put the health of most vulnerable stocks uppermost, an impossibility under the present re- gime. | Obviously aradical restructuring must occur. To trigger this sea change in the fisheries requires the passage of only one law, namely that any fishing _method that results in the interception of non-target . species shall henceforth be declared illegal. Under that provision, gillnetters would be re- quired to use the non-killing nets and holding tanks and the attendant techniques pioneered on this coast ” by Mark Petrunia and Bob Hawkshaw or leave their craft tied to the dock. Seiners would continue to | brail alongside and be given as much time’as they need to do so and also require independent observ- ers as a condition of license to gather Statistics an - ‘see that they are doing so. First Nations fishers fishing in ‘the tiver would use dip nets, beach seines, fish wheels and traps, and would be allowed to sell their fish as they saw fit within conservative limits set according to stock abundance, just as they once did. ’ The concept is simple and brilliant. Its imple- mentation will be difficult and will require guts, but the salvation of lesser stocks, and ultimately all stocks, rests on its implementation. ea p TERRACESTANDARD g&§ player during the championship game in Prince George. ‘By MARGARET SPEIRS LIGHTNING MAY not strike. the same place twice but gold medals certainly do.. The Terrace Bantam Raiders lacrosse team repeated its gold. medal victory at the Bantam C Provincials this year to the delight of coaches and spectators. “There wasn’t anybody in that building, unless you were a Quesnel fan, that wasn’t cheering for us,” said coach Terry Monture. The Raiders faced Quesnel in the champion- ship game and fought hard for the 8-4 victory, and increased their undefeated streak to an 11-0 record at provincials. “They never gave up,” Monture said. Quesnel led throughout the final and was ahead 3-2 at the end of the second period. COLIN DESOUSA, left, was part of the provincial gold medal- winning Bantam Raiders lacrosse team. Here he’s seen taking on a Quesnel > HARPREET SIDHU PHOTO | Undefeated Bantams net second provincial lacrosse gold medals — The Raiders tied the game only to have Ques- | nel go ahead 4-3 shortly after. Terrace tied it again then scored three times within three or four minutes and tossed in an emp- ty netter with one minute left for the 8-4 victory. Goalie Mike Coderre “stood on his head” and stopped at least 10 breakaways in the final, Mon- ‘ture said. ° “We wouldn’t have had a chance of winning [without Mike],” he said. And the team felt the same way. When Joey Cormano received the medal for . game MVP, he immediately went over and put it - around Corderre’s neck, he said. Shane MclIlmoyle was named the Tournament MVP, Reid Turner won the Fair Player Award ‘and Monture was given the Fair Play Coaches Award for the second consecutive year. ’ Mclimoyle ‘must’ ve scoréd 10 goals over the weekend, Monture said. “Shane was always there. His: speed is phe- nomenal,” he said. The team’s strategy to play aggressively with- 2 out drawing many penalties plus Monture’s plan” _ to have three lines with a couple of goal scorers on each one helped secure the victories. If their opponents try to spread out their best ° defensive players by putting one or two on each line, it’s not enough to cover the number of goal — scorers on each Raiders line, Monture said. The success of his strategy showed in the med- al win and the other final scores. ’ In the round robin, the Raiders slammed Port Moody 10-1, slipped past Quesnel 8-7 and crushed Langley 13-2. Terrace crushed Nanaimo 9-2 in the semi-final. It’s not too late to join a winning team By MARGARET SPEIRS LACROSSE i is quickly becoming a favourite summer sport for youth. With the success of the rep teams at provincials — the Bantams’ second gold medal win, the Pee- wees’ silver and the Midget team’s bronze —.our players have made a name for themselves down south and Terrace is rapidly becoming a hub of lacrosse activity. — Shelley Anderson, president of the Terrace Minor. Lacrosse As- ‘accomplishments,” who still have. reservations about letting their children play to “really give ita shot.” A “It's fun and gives them some- thing to be proud of and they’re very proud of themselves and their she said about the players. The league here offers trained referees and coaches. Referees fo- cus on fair play and come down hard on the illegal checking that la- crosse used to be known for, which has now been outlawed, she said. Lacrosse offers another alterna-_ ‘.tive sport and helps keep young people in shape while providing opportunities to win full scholar- - ships to university in the U.S. And the future of lacrosse here looks bright. with a plan to include. those who want to play but find equipment to be costly. Next year, the association hopes ‘to purchase enough equipment to sponsor any children interested in playing whose parents can’t afford sticks and protective padding, An- derson said. _really fast,” lacrosse provincials in: the fu-- ture with the help of our.southern neighbours. “T think we might have to do a shared thing with Kitimat unless the second sheet [of ice] is in here Anderson said, adding that hosting lacrosse provincials would require two arenas. The possibility of hosting pro- vincials' may be discussed at the annual meeting in August. “E think we can do it. I think we have a-strong executive to put it to- gether,” she said. sociation, encourages any parents There's even talk. of hosting - their goals in track to their coach's delight. : northwest zone reached their personal bests while competing in Kamloops last month. “They were excellent overall,” said track coach Dighton Haynes. Jessica Ames took fifth place in the 400- metre hurdles and Della Orrey finished eighth. Orrey also took eighth spot in the 300-metre hurdles. Brandy Yagelniski came sixth in shot put and 10th in discus. Haynes said athlete Eric Anderson, who took 13th in discus and 16th in javelin, no- ticed that most of the competitors had just letes, most of whom had finished Grade 8, which does make a difference in their times. “With the Grade 8s next year in track, to what would have got them into the finals were very good ambassadors for Terrace and EVEN THOUGH the Northwest boys basketball ‘team didn’t bring home a medal from the BC Summer Games, the players gained a worthwhile experience testing their skills against teams from around the province. v GEOFF MUELLER PHOTO showed their best behaviour. trian team, including Heather Stewart, won a bronze medal. The boys soccer team, including David Evenchick, Nolan Chapman, Jeffrey Ken- Twenty-two of the 45 athletes from the finished Grade 9 compared to Terrace. ath- © - we’ll see their times and distances coming up. this year,” Haynes said, adding the athletes" In other events, the boys and girls eques- . Athletes give it their all at BC Summer Games — BC SUMMER Games athletes : achieved. nedy, Brendan Kennedy, Austin Braid and Luke Gordon. finished seventh i in the conso- ‘lation game. The girls soccer:team, which included’ Aaron Venus, Sarah Lefebvre, Raeanne Bolton, Ashley Denomme and Megan Prati- cante, also finished in seventh. The girls volleyball team. including Cas- sandra Kinney and Michelle Main. came eighth Cyclist Connor Gough took 13th in the’ road race, 10th in the cross country race and 15th in the time trial. His teammate, Janine Cailieou, came 11th in her road race, seventh in the cross country and 10th in the time trial. Nahanni Balfour finished 15th in triathlon. The boys. 4x400-metre relay team, which included Alex, MacDougall, came eighth. MacDougall also came 13th in. the boys triple jump. The girls 4x400-metre relay team of Ames, Orrey. Lauren Robinson, and Lynsey Haynes took ‘sixth. Ames finished 13th in the long jump. In the 1,500 metre race. Haynes fin: ished in 16th place and Robinson came 17th. Brandon Baverstock took 12th in javelin and 16th in discus. Katherine Scarborough came 13th in long jump and 16th in triple jump.