Alo. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 17, 1998
It's a dispute about numbers

steelhead catch/keep plan urged

THE B.C. Wildlife Feder-
ation has got itself tangled

up ina numbers game with :

fisheries biologists.
The federation says it’s

time to let sportfishers keep ;

some of the Skeena steel- -
head they catch, because the »
stocks can sustain it,

“We think there’s enough

additional steelhead,” said .

Doug Walker, executive
director of the federation.

Regional provincial
fisheries branch head Bob
Hooton disagrees with that
analysis,

“It’s not supported by the
evidence — it’s as simple as
that,’’ said Hooton.

The disagreement is partly
a problem of numbers. The
ideal number of adult steel-
head breeding in the spawn-
ing beds is 23,000 for the
Skeena system.

But the fisheries branch
and the federation don’t
agree about the number of

DNA

helps
fish

BIOLOGISTS ARE using
DNA testing to gather evi-
dence against commercial
fishery methods.

The study, which just
received $353,000 from the
Habitat Conservation Trust
Fund, aims’ to prove that
current methods endanger
Skeena steelhead.

“Essentially, we're using
the same techniques as were
used in the O.J, Simpson tri-
al,”’ said Dana Alagi, senior
biologist at the provincial
fisheries branch.

Young steelhead grow up
in the ocean then retum to
the river where they were
born to spawn.

Steelhead from the Skeena
return through ocean water
off Alaska and northern
B.C.,, many getting trapped
in fishing nets before they
reach home.

Commercial fishers have
no way of knowing what's
in their nets — whether they
contain target species of sal-
mon or incidental catches of
steelhead from endangered
stocks. In fact, Atagi said
the fisheries aren't usually
after the steelhead at all.

“*A substantial proportion
are taken out... by ‘accident,
essentially,”’ Atapi said.

The study hopes to show a
way to test whether a fish
caught by a commercial
fishery miles away from
here actually comes from
the Skeena area.

Biologists first try to find
the DNA difference be-
tween a steclhead from the
Bulkley and one from the
Kispiox. The next step is io
work out what makes a
Skeena-region Fish unique.

This would give scientists
the information to prove that
many fish caught commer-
cially come from struggling
stocks like these on the
Skeena.

‘We're trying to gain
enough defensible informa-
tion to change the ways
commercial fisheries opera-
te,”? said Atagi.

The Habitat Conservation
Trust Fund comes from sur-
charges paid by ouldoor
sportsmen on things like
fish and gaming licences.

The amount invested in
the region comes out of $5-
million province-wide. An-
other project will count the
steclhead that swim up the
local rivers, using weirs and
box-like traps.

And more money is com-
ing. The trust started two
years ago, taking the place
of an old government fund
(called, confusingly, the
Habitat Conservation Fund),
which still had more than $4
million in it.

That money is being doled
out at a rete of roughly
$1.25 million a year, A
committee will meet later
this month to decide what to
do with the extra cash,

fish actually in the river.
Are there more or less than
23,000?

Obviously, the best way to
know is to do a count. The
snag is that getting an ac-
curate tally is almost im-
possible, and the different

, ways of estimating provide

very different resulls.

The biologists use some-
thing called the Tyce index.
This involves trapping some
of the fish that escape fram
commercial fishing nets on

their way Upriver to spawn,
and using the number to
eslimale the tolal, known as
the escapement.

The most recent resulls
suggest that about 12,000
fish got through last year,

“less than half the hoped-for

number.

‘We're not even in the
same ball park,’’ said
Hooton.

The federation, which is
inosty made up of
conservalion-conscious

hunters and anglers, uscs
reports from people who
fish the rivers.

While the Tyee index
shows falling fish stocks,
the sportfisbers’ reports in-
dicate more steelhead than
ever are being caught in the
Skeena system.

Both groups are suspi-
cious of each other’s num-
bers.

Hooton doubts the
reliability of the anglets’
reports, ‘‘That stuff is basi-

TERRACE

cally rubbish,”’ he said.

On the other hand, Mike
O'Neill of Smithers, the
regional federation presi-
dent, said some government
numbers don’t add up. He
says rivers like the Upper
Sustut contain more fish
than the fisheries branch
says they need, according to
the government’s own fig-
ures,

But when it comes to pro-
tecting the fish, everybody
seems lo agree,

“We're not advocating
harvesting from stocks that
can’t withstand the har-
vest,” ss said = ONeill.
‘Anglers are conservation-
minded,”

Jamie Alley, the director
of fisheries management at
the B.C. Ministry of
Fisheries, is responsible for
deciding whether steelhead
can be caught and kept. He
said he would be very reluc-
tant to go against the con-

_ sensus of the fish scientists.

Bob Hooton

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