Summer revives fishing dispute

Page 2

The conflict over Aboriginal commercial fisheries in British Columbia is heating up again with the approach of the summer salmon fishing season.

The B.C. Fishermens' Survival Coalition accused the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in mid-June allowing Natives from the Lower Fraser Fishing Authority to over-fish the river.

"Barely a few weeks into the fishing season, the DFO has allowed an endangered run of early Chinook salmon to be over-fished," coalition spokesman Dave Secord said.

"(Minister) Crosbie's promise that allocations will be strictly enforced are as empty as the spawning grounds will be in the future if the DFO continues with the Aboriginal Fishing Strategy."

But the coalition is just trying to whip up pre-season hysteria, said Lower Fraser Fishing Authority manager Ernie Crey.

The coalition is taking a shotgun approach by accusing both the Natives of over-fishing and Ottawa of failing to monitor the situation, he said.

The Lower Fraser Fishing Authority will not, however, abandon its claim to the fish.

"What we have decided to do is carry on," he said. "Most of our communities are poor and there is a marked improvement in the income of many of our fishing families as a result of being able to sell their fish openly."

Secord's accusations came only one day after DFO officials seized more than a dozen nets used by Native fishermen on the lower part of the river. No arrests were made.

Native fisheries met further opposition June 25 when a five-member Provincial Appeal Court panel restored the conviction of Native Dorothy van der Peet.

In a 3-2 decision, the court ruled the Stolo band on the Fraser River cannot sell or barter fish. Chief Ken Malloway said he plans to appeal the decision.

Last season marked the first time Native fishermen in B.C. have been able to harvest food fish for sale alongside non-Native Commercial fisheries under Ottawa's Aboriginal Fishing Strategy.

But the two fisheries clashed when 500,000 sockeye salmon apparently disappeared on their way to their spawning grounds in the Fraser watershed last September. While both sides blamed each other for the disappearance, an independent government report found over-fishing in general to have been the cause.

The DFO has been negotiating fishing agreements between the 97 bands in the Fraser River watershed for several months.

But agreements with Ottawa is not the solution, said Crey. Aboriginal fishermen do not need the federal government's approval.

"We prefer to fish according to our rights, not according to the permission of the fisheries department," he said.