In a very recent poll pertaining to the upcoming provincial election, 38 per cent of folks said homelessness was a concern, but only seven per cent worried about the environment.
But for those who hunt, fish, hike, camp and generally enjoy the outdoors, there has never been more concern.
At a recent symposium by the BC Wildlife Federation, held at the Prestige and chaired by Jesse Zeman, director, the well-attended audience of mostly outdoor folk became aware of how much of the provincial budget is really allocated to the Ministry of Environment and how that money is divvied up.
Although the ministry has now allocated $1.2 million for moose management, and 12 more to save the mountain caribou, more dollars are needed for the overall wildlife picture.
There have been staffing cuts with remaining folks having to do more with less. There is very little monitoring (baseline data) of most game species in the province. The bottom line was a roundtable of all-user groups, including First Nations, to bring to the table a real working agenda of how we can move ahead to fully manage/harvest surplus our wildlife resources, including all game animals into the future.
Zeman also encouraged all hunters and anglers to contact their local MLA to take the message to the director of finance. More dollars are needed to carry on the work of the environment ministry.
In other news, “Dis is the place where the fishermen gather in all coloured oilskins of red, green or brown, there’s all kinds of dorry’s with all kinds ‘o stories all fishin’ cod on the squid jiggin ground.”
This is one of Newfoundland’s Harry Hibbs’ great songs, and so it is, the northern cod are back, after three generations, after being fished out by Russian/Spanish and other offshore fleets.
Stocks are building at about 30 per cent, as are the capelin, their main food source. The total biomass of cod is estimated at three million tons.
John Crosby was fisheries minister at the time of the cod collapse, with the biggest lay-off of workers in Canadian history at 45,000.
It was only through the drive and determination of the new minister, Brian Tobin, who devised a plan with local fisherman to build a steel shearing device to cut the cables of the Spanish fleet, to the acclaim of all Newfoundlanders.
The drawback of this burgeoning of stocks is the cod are eating up the coldwater shrimp, which is also a huge industry. It’s a “come see, come saw” situation, but great news for their fishing industry,
Our sport fishing industry, small as it is, is also picking up, with a few hardy souls trying to bribe big rainbows to bite on big Shuswap Lake recently.
Although there was a small run of chinook salmon to the Shuswap River and a sub-dominant run of sockeye, fry from those stocks will probably be entering Mara/Shuswap late, including the Eagle River, in early May. This is when the rainbow trout feed exclusively on them. Small imitation buck tail flies/tiny spoons work best.