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Page| BA — Terrace Standard, Woinestay, duly 11, 1990

The nerve, the gall and yes,
the” ogance of. the sport
fishing sector is simply too
much to be believed,” writes
Dan Gilmore, editor. of The
Prince Rupert Daily News, in a
recent strident and loosely
reasoned editorial entitled
“Sockeye is King.”’

- The “‘elitist steelheaders
down Terrace way who expect
shoreworkers to hand over their
jobs, their*homes and their
children’s future for the sake of
& few trophy steelhead” receive
the full force of Gilmore’s in-
vective.

“What is totally unaccep-
table,”” he writes, ‘“‘is the
steelhead angler who makes
plenty of money working a full-
time job, but doesn’t respect the
right of the workers in the com-
mercial fishing sector to make a
living.”

And the steelheading elite are

e nerve, the

not the only. target for op-
probrious prose. On saltwater
and freshwater guides, Gilmore

‘states: “Stocks aren't what they

used to be, for a variety of

reasons. That's why it’s perfect--

ly ridiculous for these folks to
ery the blues when they can’t
kill as many steelhead as they’d
like to. They knew the risks go-
ing in, and nobody's arguing
the diminishing steelhead run is
a new phenomena (sic)."
Leading the reader through a
thicket of convoluted argument,
he offers this gem is support of
the continuance’ of the Area
Four fishery in its present form:
“The sockeye is king of the
salmon world, It may not be as
large as the chinook but it’s the
best. The steelhead, on the
other hand, tastes okay if it’s
smoked but trout lovers are far
better off with a rainbow or cut-
throat on their plates,” Gilmore

wisi is

Ri AER A abit wang big Fett ep Mag Pa he ne : A

The Skeena
. Angler —
by Rob Brown -

finishes off’ with this glorious

non-sequitur: “If you got into
the guiding business it may have
been a mistake, at least if

steelhead is what you're adver- -

tising, “And if you're not living
off the ocean-going trout, and
nobody should, then you're just
a spoiled ‘angler who has no
Tight to cry’about the matter at
the expense of the hard-working

. people employed in the fi ishing

industry.”

I have spent much time in
pursuit of steelhead trout and
have enjoyed the company of
some of the best steelheaders in

"®

the world, and I'can assure Mr.
Gilmore -and those ‘who
subscribe to his views that the”
steelheading elite, men who’
spend as much or more time -~
fighting environmental
degradation as they do angling,

are concerned with species sur-

vival and -the insurance of
genetic diversity.

-The number of species to £0
extinct in the last decade
numbers in the thousands, The.
steelheaders in Skeena and their:
colleagues worldwide -are
fighting to see that summerrin:
steelhead, coho and the Skeena

sockeye from ‘syatems other
than the Babine are not added
to that tragic catalogue. It-is for.
this reason we have advocated
the exploration” “of © selective

- harvesting methods. and ‘a re-"
examination of. the “way. ‘in.
which ‘the. ‘area four: fi shery. is

conducted. ,
Mr.’ Gilmore: concedes. “the:

- stocks are troubled and -are con- ”
tinuing to-decline for ‘‘a-variety:
“of reasons” but stops short: of

identifying them. Habitat loss is:
a concem, but the main reason
for the downward spiral of the
Skeena fishery is overfishing: by
commercial. fishermen. This

fact is borne out in data from

the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, hasbeen articulated in
Turning the Tide, Dr. Peter
Pearse’s commission on Pacific:
fisheries policy, and is covered .
in Anthony Netboy’ 's - coom-

‘prehensive works on the plight

le arrogance -

of salmon the world ¢ over. Even
a cursory examination ’of these’

sources makes -it abundantly’

clear that where: there is’ .a .

troubled stack ‘of salmon, there’
is a commercial fleet’ ‘nearby.’

When he says the problem’ ‘of .

declining © stocks “is - not’ new,

* Gilmore is ‘right. “The ' ‘perilous

condition of steelhead and coho
on: the Skeena is the: ‘legacy ‘of

more than gq century . of ‘over-__

fishing. This too is a matter of

record. ;

Even - the dullest’ of wits can
appreciate the importance’ of
healthy -fish stocks. ‘Failure to

implement measures‘ advocated |

by the sportfishing activists of

the Skeena, continuiffite ofthe:
status quo in area four, will lead |

to the collapse of the ‘fishery.
Managing the fishery on the
basis of taste, as advocated by.
Mr. Gilmore will not stave off
this sad eventuality.

SPORTS NEW

JEFF NAGEL 638-7283

TERRACE STANDARD

-SPORTSCOPE-

Triathion
boosted

TERRACE — A rush of last
minute entries has given a
boost to the Skeena Valley
Triathlon leading up to race
day.

The run-bike-swim ex-
‘ travaganza runs this Sunday
and with late entries
Organizers now predict close
to 200 participants.

Organizer Dale Green-
wood said last week 165 en-
tries are in. ‘‘It’s definitely a
success as it is now, and if it
‘wasn't for .the Summer
Games we would have made
200 for sure.”’

The B.C, Summer Games
was moved up to the second
week.of July this year, the
traditional triathlon
weekend.

‘*All of a sudden they just
started coming in,” he said.
“It’s looking good now,”

a
Bowling
TERRACE BOWLER
Leslie Alway returned from
the Master Bowlers’ Associa-
tion national tournament in
Edmonton Friday with a

team gold trophy.

She competed on B.C.’s
ladies teaching masters team,
which took first place
overall,

Victory wasn’t easy,
however. With their games
over, Alway and her B.C,
team mates had to watch as
second-place Manitoba tried
to chisel away at their lead.

_It came down to the final
game, where Manitoba fell a
single point short, ensuring a
B.C. win.

Terrace's Dave Wiebe also
bowled at the tournament,
on the B.C. men’s teaching
masters team, which placed
sixth.

Summer
Games

MORE THAN 100 local
athletes, coaches and of-
ficials are on their way to
Prince George for the B.C.
Summer Games. this
weekend,

Competing in more than
20 different events under the
Zone 7 banner are 99 Terrace
athletes.
+]: Terrace competitors are
representing the northwest in
Prince George in the follow-
ing events: baseball, basket-
ball, black powder shooting,
cycling, diving, equestrian
(Western and. English), golf,
handgun shooting, horseshoe
| pitching,’ parachuting, _soc-
cer, softball, swimming, ten-
‘| nis,. trapsHooting, and
f volleyball,

Open golf tournament.

On the green

IT’S ALL IN the putt, they say. Some putts are great and some ain't, but even if you were just put-
tering around the Skeena Valley Golf and Country Club last weekend, the sunshine made it wor-
thwhile, The warm weather also drew more than 60 entrants in this year's Skeena Valley Ladies’

Young umpire heads south

TERRACE — One of the
youngest minor baseball um-
Pires in the northwest was
behind the plate again this past
weekend — at the peewee pro-
vincial championships in Sur-
rey.
Terrace’s Rob Barg Ir.
umped intermediate °C’ division

at the provincial champion-

ships, carving another notch in
his umpire’s mask. ‘'This is a
major thing ‘for me,” he said
last week: .!
ump from.this district to Bo to
the a noe

I’m the youngest.

frequently around town, and is
now a four-year veteran of call-
ing the plays and arguing with
‘irate’ players. But he’s never
made the calls behind the plate
at a major out-of-town tourney.
He. says he simply
volunteered for. the job at the
peewee..champs and was ac-
cepted. Barg also expects to um-
pire next, month’s - Riverboat
Days slo-pitch tournament. *
-Also at the weekend peewee
_ provincials,. competing against
12 other: teams throughout the

. province, :\ as: Terrace’s district
seam. Results next week.

Christensen
to nationals

TERRACE — With a little help
from his-friends, Terrace biker
Mike Christensen should be in
Mont Joli, Quebec this weekend
for the ride of his life.

The three-day Canadian Na-
tional Cycling Championships
get underway there on Friday
and Christensen says he plans to
be there. The only obstacle is
cash — he needs to raise about
$1,000 from local businesses
and supporters for.the trip, .

‘Christensen as a new member”
of the B.C. cycling team
couldn't pet sponsored by the
provincial organization and is
being forced to rely on
hometown support.

The 21-year-old rider heads
to the nationals coming off two
more impressive performances
at southern B.C, races,

He raced in the Victoria
Grand Prix, a staged race two
weekends ago. Riding with
more than 100 of the best riders
— including several biking pros
and Commonwealth Games
medalists — Christensen turned
in a 23rd place finish in the road
race. He also finished the
10-kilometre race in a time of
just over 15 minutes, about two
minutes off the leaders, to place
27th overall in the race.

Then on July 1, he raced to
an eighth-place finish in a
criterium, or sprint, through the
streets of Gastown in downtown
Vancouver.

“I was fairly pleased with
that,” he recounted last week,
“For myself that (the criterium)
is one of my weakest events, I’m

at my best on difficult terrain —
very long, very hilly races. The
tougher the course the better it
is for me,”’

Christensen left Terrace this
spring to go to the Lower
Mainland and race full-time, He
returns in September at the end
of the racing season.

He made the provincial team
last month and is now aiming
for national team status. “‘L was
aiming for that in 1992, but I’ve
progressed more “quickly,” he
said. “Now I want to make the
national team for '91. If the re-
mainder of the season goes
weel, that’s well within my
grasp.”

But he says a heavy and costly
travelling schedule is the price
of his success, “‘This year I’m
spending about $5,000 just to
get to and from races.”’

Next year, he says, he will
push for amateur sponsorship
by one of the major trade
teams. Money in cycling, as in
most sports, revolves around
advertising, and as a result, he
says the battle to get sponsor-
ship from major companies is
‘all part of the game.’’ No
sponsorship for many riders
means no money, no travelling
— and no racing. ;

Christensen says the financial
constraints means he has to be
selective in which races he goes
to. ‘“‘For me now only the. na-
tional races are big ones. That’s
where you've got to lay it all on
the line if you’re going to make
national team.’’

week:

Many happy returns

WIMBLEDON strikes again — in Terrace. Alex Kotai was one”
of the swift swingers congregating at the Kalum St. tennis
courts for the local. club's open tournament. Results next:

Beppe O75 yg a Es