Page B B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 21, 1993 © | Coburn wins Ladies” — | SPOR’ TERRACE STANDARD, MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283 Open, Page B5 too Go | nightmares ao Skeena ‘siéelhead, natives: tharvesied a Rob Brown 2 "Politicians think with the brains . af bureaucrats"... Peter Broomhall. TEELHEADERS, along with friends of fish and the environment, hope history will show that the symposium heKd in ’ Smithers Nov. 9, 1991 -- at the end of the poorest return of Skeena steelhead and coho ever -- will prove a tuming point in the battle to save Skeena’s magnificent game fish. -. There, before ‘an audience of all interested parties, Department of © Fisheries and. Oceans (DFO) spokesmen : publicly acknowledged .. Skeena summer fish were in serious trouble. ‘So serious that Al Lill of the DFO committed his department to a 50 per cent. reduction in the harvest of steelhead over a period of three years. Last year was the first for this - ambitious program. During that — season the North Coast Advisory Board, dominated by commercial fishing interests, initiated its Steelhead Conservation _ Program under DFO ‘pressure. ” The centerpiece of this program was a catch and release initiative whereby ” the few steelhead surviving capture in gill nets were’to be transported to a holding barge and eventually released © " at the end of the week’s fishing. Not surprisingly, compliance was less than overwhelming. By the end of the season 45 fish had: been Tecovered nade a The fishing all.. sorts of cmtelviail eae the number of stesibeda rolganpd quifide the Ante ti i served. by). the barge, . but. it remains painfully ‘obvious Teleasing gill net caught fish does. not:even begin to approach the, heart of the problem. . A post mortem ‘of the 1992 season showed: once again non-reporting of landed sicelhead. at fish processing plants and by fishermen. was flagrant - and persistent,-conservation concems were almost totally ignored, . and native gillnetting proliferated. ; Predictably, Skeena sporismen were _ forced into the non-retention made yet | again; rod. days, recreation, and | ~ revenue derived from them tumbled, cs, Dhrough, -last winter and ‘spring, — sportfishing representatives spent — hours: and hours ‘meeting with the © everyone from the deputy minister to DFO personnel i in Prince Rupert. "DFO is fully commitied to achieving its objective of a 50 per cent . harvest rate reduction," said former” Fisheries minister Crosbie. : All the players were fo be involved in achieving. this goal:. "I am. personally:committed to ensuring the consultation process ‘be allowed to - function to.the fullest extent possible," said the Pacific Tegion: director, Pat “| Chamut. _ “Howeveruif ‘there is not an - acceptable-agreement, my. Department | Will take ‘appropriate action to ensure ~ protection of the fisherles resources in > question,"hewamed. ~~ We walted,. Finally the long awaited ns fishing. plan. arrived. To the surprise - | and- Chagrin of the sportsmen nothing "has ‘changed; if anything, the fishing - +]: wilt Be more intense. than last year. > Faced. with’ a large run of much ~ coveted” sockeye, the DFO is " apparently: willing to,do the bidding of thelr: commercial fishing buddies at the expense of the other stocks, : Fishing indusiry representatives like ‘to say: the Skeena problem is one of _ allocation not conservation. [have news for them: the problem is ‘one of conservation and allocation. The-commercial fishery is wiping out ‘stocks of chum, toho, steclhead and ‘even certain strains of. sockeye wilh the blessing d af the DFO. That's “huge conservation -Last -.year a, thousand.or - so | commercial. fishermen killed 11,000 _ few ‘thousand and’ you and yy; ‘brother . angler, got none. : "If nothing els¢," says. Washington” . Steelhead ‘Comntittee - Chalrman, -Pote | 1: ‘Soverel, "this. raises: a basic ‘issue of .. falmess . which, ina “democrat society, ccantiot spy be cron away." . Olympians’ haul the best ever Local athletes helped Region 7 tum In ils’ best ever B.C, Special Olympic Games performance, contributing nine of the team’s 19 medals. Leading a strong challenge in the pool, Arlene Lindley grabbed gold in both the ' 50m. Free: and 25m Breast, adding a bronze in the 25m Free. The performance was all the more noteworthy, team spokesman Joan Cox pointed out, because this was Lindlcy’s first major competition and only her sec- ond year swimming. Silas Clayton showed his versatility by picking up medals in three different strokes: gold in the 25m ‘Fly, silver in the 50m Back and bronze in the 25m Breast, And John Reid proved equally adapt- able in carving his way to thrce more gongs with a silver in the 25m Breast plus bronzes in the 50m Free and 25m "Fly. Although the three regional bowling teams couldn't crack the medals, Cox said they did an excellent job picking up a 10th place finish in a field of 50. “Tt was good experience for them,”’ she added. - But the highlight of the Coquitlam Games for the team was the stunning track performance of Solomon Angus from Kitscpuckla, Angus joined the 1cam as something of an unknown quantity, Given the distance of his home from Terrace, he hadn’t practised with the team. The team had, however, been told he was something ofa “‘star'’, Cox said, ‘ Just how big a star became obvious not long after the gun went off for the 3,000m. Angus steadily drew away from his opposition, lapping the entire ficld... then lapping them all again! Crossing the line more than two minutes clear of his nearest rival, Angus clocked a blistering 12:02.6 to obliterate the B.C. Special Olympics record. So fast was the time, Cox added, Games officials are now checking to see whether Angus broke the Canadian record as well, “‘He just blew everyone awa'y,’? Cox said. ‘‘They kept asking where did you find this guy?” Angus went on to collect a sccond gold in the 200m. , Other team medals came from Prince Rupert trio Donna Hepworth (silver, bronze), Franco Pellizzaro (gold) and Jamic Alexander (three bronze), at in the pool, Cox said the Games provided an ex- cellent finish to what bas been a,‘‘very good year"? for local Special Olympians. “The athletes have improved in every way,’’ she said, adding they had enjoyed ihe opportunity the Coquitlam events provided to meet other athletes‘ from across the province and make -a‘lot of new friends. ' The athletes will take a break for the rest of the summer then get back into the swing of things come fall. . In the meantime, Cox said. ‘Special Olympics wanted to thank -all: the businesses, organizalions and individuals in Terrace who had supported then over (he past scason and helped them Bet: to the Games. Nelson, Bush take triathlon titles. It took John Nelson just 10km of the 40km bike leg to grab the lead in this year’s Skeena Valley Triathlon and he never looked back from there, -’ Coming off the opening 1.5km swim in third spot, nearly a minute behind John — Hodson, Nelson’ pedal power propelled ’ bim quickly to the lead position. A 1:09:17 time for the cyde section : had him more than three minules clear of Michael Long going out on the final - 10km running leg. From there the gap crept up steadily, Nelson crossing the line in 2 hours, 12:20 minutes, nearly four minutes clear of brother Charles. . Back in seventh after the swim, Charles had moved steadily through the ‘pack from there, donning his running shoes in fourth and then overhauling ‘Long and Masters division triathlete ’ Brian Fubr to take the runner-up spot, Fuhr held on to take third and in doing so. prevented a family sweep, Joe Nelson ‘having to settle for fourth just over a ). minute back. The Ladies ‘individual event was any- thing but.clear cubic sc.) serpy: baat 4 Donna, Underwood, emerged from: the: ; " ” lake two minutes clear. of Cheryl Steele with Anita Bush more than sk minutes SPEED AND ENDURANCE were the keys in ‘the 1993 Skeena Valley Triathlon held July 11, Competi- _ tors opened with a°1.5km swim in Lekelse lake, headed out on to the. highway for a 40km bike ride, then leapt from their cycles (above) for tha 10km road - race. And when it was all over, Charles Nelson (at tight) took a long pull of a soft drink to celebrate his overall victory. Anita Bush took the Women's title. Ready to head for mountain top? With the °93 Skeena- Valley Tri- athlon now in the: books, attention turns to this weekend’s King of the Mountain Footrace, The race takes place Sunday, July 25, starting at the arena at 10 a.m. For the past 15 years runners and walkers have tested themselves over the rugged nature trall. of Terrace Mountain. And gone home with a sense of ac- . complishment in having successfully negotiated this winding path. Whatever thelr personal struggles were, whatever personal goals had been set, many a determined area resi- Practice makes perfect. And perfect swims are just what Tristan Brown produced at the provincial ‘AAA’ long course championships in Vancouver. * Brown, 10; went into the champlonship rated number 4 in his age group with a time of 1:16.08 in the 100m Free. - When he climbed out the pool after the. final; he was number 1 in B.C., having. slashed an amazing five seconds plus olf - his previous best time. “It was a perfect swim,’? said conch. Mike Carlyle of the gold medal ‘pet. : -provincial meet and also the first ume ‘he’d swum in‘a 50m pool, Carlyle said SNe formance. “ oo [twas that kind of weekend for Brown & “who added -sitvers. in. the 50mFly, and. Free and bronzes in.the: 100m Fly and: 400m: Free to: his hardware havl