Anticipating a repetition of the devastation of its East Coast fishing over
the recent years, Canada said in late
March that it would reduce West
Coast salmon fishing by half, as the
industry faces one of the poorest
salmon seasons in a generation.
For years, the number of salmon
returning from the ocean to their
home rivers has been dropping, and
experts have warned of a disaster
that had struck the Atlantic. Off the
coast of Newfoundland, about
40,000 fisher people and fish plant
workers became jobless. The government had virtually shut down all cod
fishing in the early '90s to allow
what few fish were left to multiply.
The West Coast salmon fishery is
a subject of intense debate between
commercial fisherpeople, sportshunters and local Indians, each accusing the other of angling too much
catch. The government has also acted
callously by allowing too many fishing boats to chase too few fish.
These reasons apart, high-tech
boats, river pollution and warming
of the oceans have reduced the
salmon population. Unless it can
rebuild its fish stocks, Canada, a
nation that for centuries have ever
zealously guarded its waters for its
fishing groups, risks losing its industry on bath its coasts.
The federal government said that
it would go all the way to spend
nearly US $60 million to buy licenses
back from the fisherpeople by this
summer and adopt other measures
that together will reduce the number
of fishing vessels in Canadian Pacific
waters by one half (to 2,200). Lower
limits an catches and restrictions on
new licenses will be implemented;
the possibility remains that all fishing on the Fraser river will also be
prohibited.
"These are bold, tough, but necessary measures if we are going to
be successful in revitalising the
industry," said Canadian fisheries
minister Fred Misin. "To put very simply, the fish come first."
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