B6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 19, 2003

SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

- SKEENA ANGLER’
ROB BROWN

Slicing Lice

year or so ago, Alexandra Morton, a

biologist living in the Broughton Ar-

chipelago, found herself at the heart

of a conservation controversy, Oddly
enough the species that provoked her concern was
Oncorhynchus Gorbuscha, more commonly known
as the pink salmon,

The pink has never enjoyed much respect from
man: net fishermen could never cash him in for
much coin; sport fishers preferred his larger, stronger
cousins because they fought harder and came with
more meat attached: the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans didn’t expend much energy on his well-being
because their real mandate was always to serve fish
only in so far as doing so served the fishing industry
and thereby the continued security and well-being
of their own institution, In fact, given that much of
the gold touched by managerial Midas men at DFO
has turned to lead (remember that these are the guys
and gals whose managerial excesses drove the once
magnificently abundant Atlantic cod to the verge of
extinction) it could be argued that the “lowly” pink
has probably benefited from DFO neglect.

When you hear talk of pinks the adjective abun-
dant is always close by. In comparison to the other
Pacific salmon, the pink -is small,.but his numbers
are huge. The Lakelse River, a scant 10 miles long,
might get over a million on a good year and slightly
fewer than that during a bad one. To get a feel for
how many fish this is, one has only to consider that
+30,000 steelhead in the entire Skeena drainage puts
“smiles an the faces of sportsmen and fisheries man-
agers alike.

Scientists, and just about anyone else witha well-
ailed brain, will understand that almost everything
that inhabits the riverine ecosystems together with
pinks ~ everything from microscopic aquatic benthos
to big bears and soaring birds ~ benefits enormously
and essentially from their presence. Put simply, pink
abundance is catching.

After finding an alarming number of dead pink
salmon smolts in the waters of the central coast
surrounding the Broughton Archipelago, Alexandra
Morton started worrying about the collapse of the
pink stocks there.

The CBC came to investigate. That old bandwag-
on jumper, Rafe Mair, joined the fray. In moments,
the problem was national news,

Provoked by all the controversy, DFO, whe had
realized by now that the sun was setting on the
commercial fishing industry and had become the
enablers of aquaculture, sent scientists to investigate.
Alter studying the problem in the wrong locale, the
_learned men from DFO science claimed there was no
problem.

The Broughton pink salmon run collapsed shortly
thereafter.

In the wake of this calamity, the fish farms that
provoked the lice infestation were fallowed, not, as
it turns cut, because they were concerned about pink
conservation but because their fish had contracted a
deadly kidney disease.

Despite the fact that fisheries scientists in Nor-
way readily acknowledge that sea lice are a major
problem for wild fish - and get government support
for sea lice research ~- DFO and the B.C. aquaculture
industry argued that their lousy farms presented no
threat to our salmon.

This year the fish farms located in the Broughton
are being filled to overflowing with Atlantic salmon
in an obvious elfort to recoup the losses of last year’s
fallowing.

These factory fish are a giant magnet for billions
of sea lice larvae. The latest science from Norway
suggests that just one fouse can kill a pink salmon fry.
But, there's no problem, says the industry; we'll just
nuke the lice with pesticides.

If you know anything about lice, ticks, fleas and
their relations, you will know. that they are devilishly
hard to kill and that the chemicals used to kill them
are violently toxic. In this case fish farmers propose
to use a “bionuke” called Slice to treat their lice.

The problem with chemical armaments like Slice
is that when you shell lice with them, you shell ev-
erything else that carries a shell, including shrimp,
prawns, crabs,.and the essential copepods that feed
wild pink and chum salmon, As a result, the poor
little Broughton pinks that may survive the predation
of lice will, quite possibly, find themselves out of
feed thanks to all the slicing that’s gone on.

There’s an environmental crisis going on in the
waters of our central coast. Multinational corpora-
tions are putting wild ecosystems at risk with the as-
sistance of people you and I pay to protect our natural
salmon heritage.

Now that's a crime of the first water,

TERRACE STANDARD

Kermodes put
the claws to
Smithers Gryphons

CAPTURING the title of
zone champions is bitter-
sweet for the Caledonia se-
nior girls’ basketball team.

Despite. winning a hard
fought playdown in Smithers
Nov. 13 the team will not be
travelling to Langley to rep-
resent the zone,

‘The trip will just cost too
much, says head coach Mark

_Neid.

* Airfare is $4,000- $5,000
doliars plus a van plus food
and hotel,” he says.

That would mean a total
of between $8,000 -$10,000
and that’s just too much
money to raise in too short
a time.

“The Grade 12s are
definitely disappointed, but
I think they understand,”’ he
said.

The Kermodes took on
the Smithers Gryphons in a
best of five series.

The first game the Gry-
phons came out strong lead-
ing 7-1 early in the game.

At about the mid-way
point the Kermodes upped
the ante and took charge,
winning the match 25-22.

After switching — sides,
Smithers got down to busi-
ness and quickly took charge
of the match. They ‘domi-
nated from the start and at
one point were up by eight

points.

Terrace moved within
three points of Smithers, but
the Gryphons held on and
won the match 25-21,

In the third match, the
Kermodes got off to an early
four-point lead which helped
win this one 25-27,

In a back and forth nail
biter of a fourth match Ter-
face cam out on top winning
26-24 and claiming top spot
in the zone,

Neid’s proud of the team’s
performance . particularly
given the late start it got in
the season. Neid didn’t start
coaching until after the vol-
leyball season had already
begun.

He credits the experience
of the rest of the coaching

staff including Ron Poole

and Keith Axelson in giving
the girls guidance.

“We improved the most in
the zone,” Neid Said. “We’ ve

come the farthest by far.”

Terrace’s Kirstie Mac-
Donald was named most
valuable player on the Ker-
mode’s team,

While the team’s disap-
pointed not to be going to
provincials Neid is already
making fundraising plans for
next year, so if Cal win the

zones again they'll be able to .

make the trip.

635-5583. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

, a a

@ A sweeping good time

SHANE deJong and Kelly ing 9¢ up with two others as the Totem
Mixed bonspiel hit the ice at the Terrace Curling Club last weekend. Eighteen
teams took part in the event which kicked off the bonspiel season here. The
next bonspiel is set for Dec. 26-28 when the juniors take to the ice. The club is
looking to create more league teams for the second half of the curling season
starting in January. Five new teams have been created so far and the club's
hoping for at least five more. For details about league play and bonspiels call

638-7283

Bantam beatings

for Terrace team

Nov. 7-8,

4-0 lead in the first two minutes.

yeild hard lessons

TERRACE’S Inland Kenworth AA Bantam reps came
out of a road trip to Smithers with one tie and one loss

Terrace tied Saturday's game 5-5 with 66 saves by net-
minder Lavy Sangha. But the team came out flat against
the Storm in Sunday’s match-up. Smithers took a quick

from the club as well.

Terrace pulled Sangha from net and sent in Amanda
Bedwell but it didn't help, says coach John Amos,

“We have to come to a game prepared mentally, Sun-
day we obviously weren’t ready and I felt really bad for
Amanda Bedwell. She came into the game ready to play,
but the rest of the team didn’t. They got pressure on us
from the opening face-off and peppered Amanda in net,"
he says.

Smithers dominated the game and won 11-1.

The team also learned a lesson at an Oct. 31-Nov, |
‘tournament in Quesnel. Up against some faster, stronger

HALEY HENDRY, Jessica Baverstock and Kelsey
Owen, 11,.(back).

Skaters keen on
regional meet

TWO LOCAL skaters are petting very excited. That’s be-
cause they’re on their way their first major regional skating
meet,

Hayley Hendry, 8, and Jessica Baverstack, | 1, have never
skated in the regional competition before and they are thrilled
to be on their way to the Cariboo North Central Region com-
petition in Dawson Creek Nov, 28-30. Kelsey Owen, LI, is
going for her second time.

“LT think it’s going to be fun and unnerving,” says Baver-
stock, who admits she's a little nervous about the meet.

The three girls will have plenty of experience to help them
deal with nerves — they'll be joined by 14 more senior skaters

the province Terrace had a tough time keeping up.

They lost 9-4 against Fort St. John’s AAA team, then
lost 10-4 against Williams Lake’s AA team. -Up against
Prince George's B team ‘Terrace put on a better showing
ending in a 4-4 tie.

But when they hit the ice with the Smithers Storm the
team just didn’t have it in them and lost 10-3.
“Smithers really gave it to us in our final game, it was
an eye opener for our team,” says Amos, “It was a learn-
ing process for our team, the triple AAA teams are very
intense and come oul hard for 60 minutes, this is some-
thing we have to learn to do.”

Swimmers see sweet success

TERRACE'S youngest “The swimmers swam very
swimmers gol a chance to smart — it’s great to see
test their skills at their first when the they are using the
regional development meet . things that they learned in
of the season. the practices.”

The Smithers invita- The event focused on
tional meet brought together’. stroke ‘count and time as
teams from here, Smithers, opposed to race strategy.

AAA teams and some excellent AA teams from around —

Kitimat and Prince Rupert
to compete against one an-
other. The goal at the devel-
opment level is not so much
to go for fast race times but
to work on technique.

“IT was really excited
about the .performances,”
says Blueback swim. club
head coach Mike Carlyle,

That's to make sure swim-
mers are using the time in
the pool efficiently.

The kids were timed in
the events and Carlyle was
pleased with the ratio of 100
per cent best times.

Shea’ Lozinski, 10,
Mariah Niesner, 10, and
Brandon Williams — each

BRANDON Williams plunges into the water at the
Smithers development meet. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

logged 100 per cent best
times, And Jone Wolfe,

10, Conor Watson, 10, and — three of the six events.

Nahanni Balfour, 12, each

logged best times in at least -Loseth at (250) 567-

Bridge
players
wanted

BRIDGE players in
the region have another
chance to register for the
bridge competition for
the upcoming Northern
B.C. Winter Games.

A correction was re-
cently made to the bridge
sports package for the
upcoming games which
expands the category
from limiting players of
age 55 and older to play-
ers of all ages.

Four players of any
age may represent their
region at the bridge com-
petition,

The 2004 Games are
being held in Kitimat
Feb. 5-9. To register call
Carol Wall at 615-3000,

Table tennis

tourney set
CALLING ALL table
tennis players. Anyone
interested in participat-
ing in the upcoming
B.C. Winter Games are
invited to play in a fun
tournament Nov, 22 in
Vanderhoof.

Zone coach Doreen
Loseth is organizing the
event and it’s an oppor-
tunity for prospective
players to be seen prior to
team selection at the end
of this year.

Prizes will be awarded to
girls 17 and under, boys
17 and under, women 18
and older and men 18 and
older. There is no charge’
to enter,

To register call Doreen

3982,

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