Peter Kalina: Minute samples
can bring down poachers.

TERRACE — A new technique
for matching the remains of
poached animals left in the bush

with meat or trophies in the
possession of poachers may soon
be in use in the Northwest.

Terrace conservation officer
Peter Kalina said last week that
a company in Richmond has
developed the technology for
analyzing the DNA — a compo-
nent of the cell nucleus — from
killed animals and using it as
evidence in court against sus-
pected poachers.

The technique was developed
in Alberta and has proven effec-
tive in trials in Jasper National
Park. —

"I expect it to become com-
monplace in the near future,"
Kalina said. "It will revolution-
ize our forensic capability. It’s
like fingerprints."

Kalina explained that poachers,

even after arrest, are often diffi-
cult to convict because conserva-
tion officers have to provide

Marrey

From Norm Hol mes And Staff

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rvation officers to get

conclusive evidence linking
meat, trophies or animal parts in
the accused poachers possession
to animal remains found in the
field. The enforcement agencies
have to cali on an entire battery
of expert resources, which might
include veterinarians, electro-
foresis technology, and even
archaeologists.

Now Helix Biotechnology of
Richmond can analyze minute
samples from the remains of
individual animals and state
conclusively whether the
samples from meat, trophies or
animal parts in the possession of

Terrace Review. ——

a poacher came from the same
animal.

Each analysis costs $500,
Kalina said. "We can easily
justify that.

"As field officers, we’re pretty
excited about this."

Moose populations in the
Skeena region are taking heavy
poaching casualties. Kalina said
his office knows of 18 moose
that have been illegally killed
since the start of hunting season
Oct. 18, a significantly heavier
Tate of predation than last year,
when six poachings had been
reported for the same period.

Wednesday, December 4, 1991 3

new weapon

The poaching doesn’t appear to
be linked to any specific area in
the region. "It’s pretty wide-
spread," Kalina said. "We’ve had
poaching kills in every river
drainage."

Kalina said the rate is alarming
because the critical months of
January and February, the time
when he would expect the most
poaching, are yet to come.

The DNA tracing technique, he
said, should be available to
conservation officers here as
soon as Helix completes its work
on a data bank for the Skeena
region.

ne

WORK FOR PLAY.under the guidance of teacher Joe Murphy, six Grade 12 Caledonia

Senior Secondary construction students spent Nov. 22 setting up this playhouse in the
Northwest Community College Early Childhood Development preschool daycare playground.
Other items on the Caledonia construction agenda this year are the second of four Howe
Creek bridges and a heritage-style roof for the North Sparks bus shelter.

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Think before you lobby. This
is the message for Terrace city
council from Jim Culp of the
Skeena Watershed Sport Fisher-
men’s Coalition and Don Gillan-
ders of the Sport Fish Advisory
Board.

From an economic point of
view, council has been told by
the local business community
that the river classification sys-
tem and $10 non-resident ang-
ling fees are keeping tourists
away. "There are some things
wrong with it," admits Culp.
"But on the other hand, this
policy was put into place to
protect the interests of British
Columbian anglers as a whole
and [ think that you should
really consider that very serious-
ly."

According to Culp, the river
classification system, which
went into effect on April 1,
1990, is intended in part to
control the increasing number of
anglers on some popular and

Council urged to
‘view all sides of
fish fee debate

productive rivers in the region,
and it’s working, There is more
room on the river bank for resi-
dent anglers, and the serious
non-resident fisherman is paying
a fair price for the best steelhead
fishing in the world.

"Of all the clients that I’ve
had," says Culp, "I’ve not had
one single clicnt who’s com-
plained about the class one and
two licence fees. As a matter of
fact, they all say the same thing.

It’s a bargain. You're selling it
short.”

Gillanders agrees, adding that
river conditions, not the cost of
a licence, is the real source of
business complaints. "In 1990,
the year that it came in, it was
some of the worst water condi-
tions that we had seen in many
years here," says Gillanders,
And 1991 "just happens to tie in
with an extremely poor brood
year of 1986" (for returning
Steelhead), he adds,

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