EMPTY PROMISES
Well, my name is The Fish Finder and my #1 hobby is fishing, so ultimately I figure that I should do a blog about fishing. This is more of a rant against the new conservation strategy here in my home province Alberta. After skimming back through the old Conservation Strategy that was for the 5 year period beginning in 2000, I am reminded of the empty promises by our Government. I appologize in advance because this is probably going to be a long blog.
Although there are many areas to comment on and argue points such as habitat maintenace, fish-use allocation, funding, protection of waterbodies and the protection of fish. As far as I'm concerned it all boils down to two major problems: Poor Management and Funding. Here is a link to the Conservation Strategy. http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fw/fishing/pdf/FishConservStrat.pdf
I will first discuss Funding. We need to put more money back into the fisheries and manage that money with more care. Unfortunately, the Government believes it should be a "user-pays" philosophy, basically meaning that only those who fish should be forced to pay for it. Now, this system could actually work except for the major problem that all proceeds from fishing license sales go directly into the governments General Revenue category. This dollar amount then gets spread among all areas of government funding, instead of it going directly back into the fisheries department. How are there supposed to be any changes when our money does not even go back into our own division.
Secondly, Poor Management goes hand in hand with lack of funding. Since 2000 there has been a decrease in the amount of conservation jobs to patrol our lakes. So how do they expect to see a decrease in the amount of poaching and illegal acts on the lakes. Here is a small exerpt taken from a local fishing board by a fellow named kinnickinnick. The fine structure "...For offenders [in Alberta has remained] unchanged since 87'. No significant changes of fish limits or size limits to keep older mature fish breeding (one of their biggest points). Derbies and tournaments going unchecked as per their strategy (5 years and nothing, there are still catch and kill derbies). Create more and better habitat (all I have seen in all my looking is stream habitat rehab. One or 2 spawning beds for lakes to which the specie they target are predominantly stream spawners), and no new initiatives..."
I for one, do not keep my fish, I enjoy the sport of fishing and the act of Catch and Release. I continue to be amazed me at the numerous number of times I have seen fellow fisherman abuse the regulations day after day. Pertaining to both size limits and amount of fish to be kept. Basically what I want to say to the Albertian Government is PUT MORE MONEY INTO OUR FISHERIES, THEY NEED IT!!
I would like to end with a rather humorous quote from the same man as before, kinnickinnick. It pertains to the amount of money the government spends on hunting and wildlife regulations and how tough those regulations are compared to Alberta's fisheries regulations.
"Maybe we should graft fur on some of these fish, it seems everything else but fish in this province gets more attention."
Well, my name is The Fish Finder and my #1 hobby is fishing, so ultimately I figure that I should do a blog about fishing. This is more of a rant against the new conservation strategy here in my home province Alberta. After skimming back through the old Conservation Strategy that was for the 5 year period beginning in 2000, I am reminded of the empty promises by our Government. I appologize in advance because this is probably going to be a long blog.
Although there are many areas to comment on and argue points such as habitat maintenace, fish-use allocation, funding, protection of waterbodies and the protection of fish. As far as I'm concerned it all boils down to two major problems: Poor Management and Funding. Here is a link to the Conservation Strategy. http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fw/fishing/pdf/FishConservStrat.pdf
I will first discuss Funding. We need to put more money back into the fisheries and manage that money with more care. Unfortunately, the Government believes it should be a "user-pays" philosophy, basically meaning that only those who fish should be forced to pay for it. Now, this system could actually work except for the major problem that all proceeds from fishing license sales go directly into the governments General Revenue category. This dollar amount then gets spread among all areas of government funding, instead of it going directly back into the fisheries department. How are there supposed to be any changes when our money does not even go back into our own division.
Secondly, Poor Management goes hand in hand with lack of funding. Since 2000 there has been a decrease in the amount of conservation jobs to patrol our lakes. So how do they expect to see a decrease in the amount of poaching and illegal acts on the lakes. Here is a small exerpt taken from a local fishing board by a fellow named kinnickinnick. The fine structure "...For offenders [in Alberta has remained] unchanged since 87'. No significant changes of fish limits or size limits to keep older mature fish breeding (one of their biggest points). Derbies and tournaments going unchecked as per their strategy (5 years and nothing, there are still catch and kill derbies). Create more and better habitat (all I have seen in all my looking is stream habitat rehab. One or 2 spawning beds for lakes to which the specie they target are predominantly stream spawners), and no new initiatives..."
I for one, do not keep my fish, I enjoy the sport of fishing and the act of Catch and Release. I continue to be amazed me at the numerous number of times I have seen fellow fisherman abuse the regulations day after day. Pertaining to both size limits and amount of fish to be kept. Basically what I want to say to the Albertian Government is PUT MORE MONEY INTO OUR FISHERIES, THEY NEED IT!!
I would like to end with a rather humorous quote from the same man as before, kinnickinnick. It pertains to the amount of money the government spends on hunting and wildlife regulations and how tough those regulations are compared to Alberta's fisheries regulations.
"Maybe we should graft fur on some of these fish, it seems everything else but fish in this province gets more attention."
posted by The Fish Finder at
11:18 AM
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