The conservation industry continues to walk a perilously fine line. On the one hand, they must maintain their financial base by allowing anglers to assume that their best interests are being served, while at the same time preserving their tax exempt status by showing governments that they are willing to take a hard line against angling.  The prospect of large sums of government money being made available for salmon research has created an added incentive to keep up the appearance of brutal objectivity. Many have resorted to attacking angling itself, which historically has been at the very foundation of the conservation ethic.  Thus, you will find frequently such loaded phrases as “is your catch and release really catch and decease?" (Atlantic Salmon Journal, Summer 1998); references to “archaic regulations still permitting anglers in some regions to kill fish” (ASJ, Summer, 2000); or articles like this one from Dr. Fred Whoriskey (ASJ, Winter, 1998):

“In some of the rivers draining into the Bay of Fundy, anglers may have killed up to 90% of certain runs. ......If fly fishing can capture up to 90% of the fish in a river, it is a process with great potential to impact upon salmon populations”.............
“Anglers cannot afford to believe that they have no impact upon wild salmon populations, This is a collective denial that will aggravate the continuing precipitous declines in the species abundance”.

“We did that to save salmon for the benefit of the species - and not so sport fishermen could simply displace commercial fishermen” (full text)

• A 50% cut in our daily catch limit in 1998
• The impulsive mid-season shutdown of all Miramichi angling past 10 AM for 10 days in August 1999, during which time poaching increased at an alarming rate.
• Intense surveillance of legitimate angling activities leading to frivolous charges and selective enforcement based more upon ease of apprehension than upon severity of infraction.
• The constant threat of closure the moment the Miramichi reaches a certain level or temperature. (We were perilously close to a closure in late June of this year, had we not received the rain when we did. Already there is increasing pressure being brought to bear by DFO to establish a protocol under which the river can be closed on very short notice in 2001)
• The shameless attempt to waste 19.5 million taxpayers dollars purchasing a few existing lodges, to establish a native outfitting industry, rather than building new native facilities at a fraction of the cost. (Based on the false premise that any additional angling pressure would be detrimental to the Miramichi.)

    Those of you who love the Miramichi should consider carefully the long term implications of this situation. Now that the general public has taken up the mantra of angling curtailment, we have crossed a very dangerous line. When those who are paid handsomely to understand the intricacies of this river continually misrepresent and overstate its condition, how can we expect the public at large to know any better?  Why would such a blatant call for more severe angling restrictions come this year, right at the end of a salmon season which saw very healthy returns of fish to the Miramichi and some of the best sustained summer angling in over a decade? Moreover, DFO research confirms that our juvenile counts of both parr and fry have reached extraordinarily high levels. I would suggest that we are witnessing the rise of an entirely new approach to Atlantic salmon conservation based more upon ideology  than biology, and that should frighten us all.

For 17 angling seasons, the Miramichi has set an exemplary standard in the salmon world by releasing unharmed all large, predominantly female, Multi Sea Winter salmon. All angling participants willingly embraced this concept because it was based upon biologically sound management principles. The taking of grilse was permitted to continue for several reasons, the most notable of which was that they are 90-95% male, genetically predisposed to be small, and thus, were considered to be neither a spawning necessity nor a benefit. As Dr. Whoriskey has said, “the progeny from a grilse-salmon mating are predominantly grilse.” A few years ago, one conservation group even advocated increasing the annual harvest of grilse.  It was also understood that the surgical removal of small quantities of surplus “runt” males would act in a pre-emptive role as a safety valve to ensure that no lethal pressure were brought to bear upon the vital MSW component of the resource. Rational thinkers have always recognized that the protection of the Miramichi has depended largely upon the maintenance of an involved, committed angling presence as a primary deterrent to poaching and habitat destruction. In a province where thousands of acres of woodlands are clear-cut every year in the name of “forest management”, surely it is not unreasonable to permit the selective harvest of a few male grilse to ensure the long term survival of our large female salmon.

 Under sound management, the Miramichi has distinguished itself by continuing to thrive, in stark contrast to the siginificant declines experienced in many other non-angled rivers.  It was not until the pre-millennial panic of the late 1990’s that our “grilse complex” set in and we began to see a fixation upon this latest “sacred cow’. Some conservation newcomers, in search of fresh windmills at which to tilt, see the salvation of the grilse as the new “holy grail”, the pursuit of which has done little more than to lull the gullible into a self-congratulatory stupor. Regrettably, those of us who live here will be left to deal with the mess long after this “cause of the month” has lost its novelty.

 Even a few folks on the Miramichi, some of whom have a history of conflicts with local people, have begun to argue vigorously for legislation mandating the release of all grilse and the use of barbless, single hooks. Others have suggested massive increases in resident license fees with additional puntive charges for those who would still desire to keep a grilse.  For some, the hope is that these measures would bring a convenient reduction in the number of local anglers involved in the legal fishery and competing for open water.  However, if salmon angling becomes nothing more than an elitist diversion, this reckless course of action will take us down a dangerous path of destruction as a few of the disenfranchised seek retribution through poaching large salmon rather than angling for an occasional grilse.

 As the most significant salmon river still under the exclusive control of DFO, the Miramichi will continue to risk being irreparably damaged by the zeal of those who have “forgotten their purpose and redoubled their efforts,” until someone finally stands and says “Enough!!” It is my hope that you will become that voice by holding the conservation industry accountable for consistently placing Miramichi salmon at risk by contributing to the “continuing precipitous decline” of your angling privileges. We must challenge these organizations to publicly affirm and defend the legitimacy of angling as a primary conservation tool.  Before making your next contribution, ask your group for a written statement of their position on the conservation value of angling and tell them clearly that if they don't get the message, they don't get the money!  For years we have heard the cry “You can make a difference” which has really meant “You can make a donation.” Perhaps what is most needed now is a “collective denial” of funds until this runaway train gets back on track. Isn't it about time that someone began to work as hard for your sport as they do for your support? Organizations like Ducks Unlimited have been very successful in their conservation efforts without ever having to apologize for hunters’ activities, so why have anglers quietly allowed “salmon conservation” to be redefined in such extremist terms. Many of us, like cows in the shade of a Burger King billboard, have become so comfortable with the agents of our impending demise that we may actually be helping to prearrange our own funeral.  Perhaps a fitting epitaph might be “No grilse were harmed in the destruction of this fishery. “

 We all agree on the need to save salmon but we disagree profoundly on the methodology. The purist wants to save the salmon from angling, the realist wants to save the salmon for angling, but the pragmatist knows that you will only save the salmon through angling, and that makes all the difference in the world. Ask anyone whether Miramichi salmon would be better off if all angling were closed for 5 years and they will tell you that this resource would suffer from apathy, abuse, neglect and insignificance like so many other former salmon rivers sacrificed on the altar of conservation. The Miramichi deserves the kind of legislative stability and sensible representation that will encourage more people to participate in angling. In so doing, they will become the very essence of “practical conservation”, not for the good of the local economy, nor for the good of the participants, but for the good of the salmon itself. Remember,

There are two sides to the current dispute over aboriginal salmon fishing. Conservationists quite rightly criticize native plans to open a commercial Atlantic salmon fishery. But natives also have a valid point: a large commercial salmon fishery already exists. It is called recreational angling, and it brings revenue to both the province and outfitters. Why should natives reduce their fishing when there is no limit on the number of recreational salmon licenses that can be sold.

In 1999, the province issued 17,654 resident and 5,213 non-resident salmon angling licenses. It printed 56,000. Each entitled the bearer to catch and kill up to eight grilse (young salmon) over the whole season and to catch and release up to four fish a day.

These numbers don’t tell the whole story. The province encourages anglers to release their catch and return all their salmon tags unused. This conservation ethic is shared by the province’s angling organizations and the majority of individual anglers. According to a provincial Fish and Wildlife spokesman “the vast majority” of salmon anglers keep no more than one or 2 fish a season. Indeed, many anglers conscientiously release every fish.

That being the case, it is difficult to understand why the size of New Brunswick’s recreational salmon fishery has not been reduced. The anglers, the province and Ottawa all recognize that salmon stocks are in trouble. Why not limit the number of fish anglers can kill?

A hook-and-release only fishery is not the solution. Hook-and-release angling still kills some fish, spawners as well as grilse. And, unlike tagged, kept grilse, the number of fish killed by the hook-and-release fishery cannot be tracked. If the overall goal is conservation of dwindling salmon stocks, New Brunswick must reduce the total number of salmon killed - which ultimately means reducing the number of fishermen, not just the number of fish they can keep.

It is time the province and DFO applied the strategy currently used for moose hunting to salmon angling: reduce the overall number of salmon tags available to anglers and hold a lottery for licenses, allotting a set number of licenses to each healthy watershed. The number of licenses available could be increased or decreased as salmon returns allow.

The day is fast approaching when there will be no salmon fishing in New Brunswick. Anglers, aboriginal fishermen and fisheries managers have a choice: they can reduce fishing now and put every possible effort into improving the salmon’s chances of survival or they can continue to fish and argue with each other until the last salmon dies.

Which fishing story would you rather tell your grandchildren?

 We wish to commend the Telegraph Journal for the thoughtful editorials which have appeared on your opinion page over the past couple of days.
 In the same constructive spirit with which we have read your comments, may we respond to your proposal with regard to salmon tags and a license lottery.
 While we respect your views that salmon anglers must share the blame and the responsibility for the state of the salmon resource, a great deal of progress has been made by the angling community over recent years to do just exactly what you are recommending: that is , to control the extent of recreational fishing opportunities is a rational manner to match the availability of the salmon resource.
There is strong evidence of this, as follows:
Where salmon runs in certain rivers have failed to support a recreational harvest under reasonable management criteria, then those rivers have been closed to all fishing opportunities, the main existing example being the entire St. John River watershed.
For many decades, in the interest of long-term sustainability of salmon stocks in all rivers, there have been established major stretches of totally closed waters, which are sanctuary areas for spawning. These are located in the headwaters of rivers like the Miramichi (above the barrier protection pools at Juniper, Dungarvon and the Northwest), and the Restigouche (above key points on the Upsalquitch, the Little Main and the Kedgwick.)
 These closed areas constitute a major element of recreational fishing opportunities within the province of New Brunswick and justly so, in the interest of conservation.
 There currently are major areas of Crown angling waters that are managed in a tightly controlled manner to limit recreational fishing. Numerous Crown Reserve stretches are available to residents only on an annual lottery basis which strictly limits the number of rods for every given stretch every day.
 Several of these Crown Reserve stretches have been further limited to hook-and-release only, such as the North Pole Stream.
 Other major stretches of Crown water have been auctioned and leased on a long-term basis and specified limits are imposed upon the number of anglers allowed to fish at any one time.
 There are also many stretches of open Crown water, as well as extensive private ownership, where it is more difficult to control or limit recreational fishing access given the basic rights of all citizens to use and enjoy common public property or their own lands. However, what has been applied generally to these circumstances, as well as to restricted waters, is a season license limit for any angler of only eight grilse tags with daily restrictions on the use of them.
 The existence of the harvest tagging system, which was originally introduced in New Brunswick for the first time anywhere in 1980, ensures an absolute control on the number of tags issued, and on the legal possession of harvested fish. Therefore, far more preferable than a license lottery would be a reduction in the number of tags available on a seasonal or daily basis as conservation may require.
 Unfortunately, the federal decision to remove the tagging of aquaculture fish several years ago seriously compromised the harvest tagging program: nevertheless, the tagging still works reasonably well in controlling the recreational harvest.
 Frankly, we do not share your views about hook-and-release fishing, because we believe this approach has been well demonstrated as a significant solution to conservation needs, if not necessarily a perfect one.
 The practice of hook-and-release has been promoted vigorously for years now and is being used extensively by virtually all anglers as they seek to enjoy the sport of fishing in a spirit that is far more important than merely killing fish. It  has now become almost a basic element in New Brunswick’s angling culture that there is a double reward to be experienced by first hooking a fish and then returning it safely to the water.
 While, as you suggest, there is some risk of mortality associated with hook-and-release  fishing, it has been scientifically demonstrated to be minimal, perhaps less than five percent overall and can be made almost totally effective with the use of barbless, single hooks and proper release techniques.
 More and more, anglers today are using flies with the barbs crimped or cut off, and the result is not only safe release of deliberately hooked salmon but also of accidentally hooked small fish. Furthermore, there are tight limits even to catch and release, only four fish per day in the regular season and there is intense peer pressure to ensure that those limits are respected.
 We also do not share your view that the number of angling participants must be reduced as in your analogy with moose hunting.
 Simply put, angling can be practised indefinitely without killing the resource, whereas moose hunting provides no such option. In fact, one of the great values of recreational fishing is that it can be sustained as a non destructive activity by any angler who wishes to do so.
 Based on all of the foregoing considerations, we would respectfully submit that there is no real need to place all salmon angling opportunities on a lottery system.
 In our view, it is important that open public water be maintained and that privately owned fishing rights be respected. If salmon resource management requires a reduction in tags for each license, then that flexibility continues to exist in the present system.
 As we have endeavoured to point out, the recreational fishery has been acting on the principles of your suggestions for more than two decades and continues to move forward voluntarily with initiatives to cope with the serious state of the salmon resource.
 For example, the concept of total watershed management is now being introduced on the Miramichi and elsewhere in New Brunswick bringing together both Federal and Provincial authorities in concert with conservation groups such as the MSA and similar stakeholders.
 There can be no doubt that further restraints will be introduced in the recreational fishery if the condition of the stocks warrants such action in a comprehensive management plan.

J. W. (Bud) Bird
Chairman
Miramichi Salmon Association

 I am writing to comment on your editorials of October 11 and 12, “On Native rights – and wrongs” and  “Salmon anglers share the blame.”
I appreciate and welcome your recognition that conservation of wild salmon is of tremendous importance to all New Brunswickers and ultimately all Canadians.
 The Atlantic Salmon Federation is of the firm belief that all Canadians must cooperate to save this precious and very vulnerable species. In fact, ASF, our regional councils and local river associations are working closely with many native communities in Atlantic Canada to further our mutual salmon conservation objectives.
 Since the early 1980’s, the Atlantic Salmon Federation has promoted “Live release” of all large predominately egg-bearing salmon in all fisheries in Canada.
 There is growing recognition by anglers, natives and government of the importance of selective harvest and live release. This can be accomplished through carefully managed catch and release fisheries for all anglers and trapnet fisheries for all natives which allow the safe release of all large spawners.
 An important action for government to save Atlantic salmon is the immediate implementation of community watershed partnerships, which would involve representatives of the whole community surrounding our rivers in conservation programs.
 Natives, industry, conservation organizations and anglers must be cooperative stewards of the wild Atlantic salmon and the rivers the salmon inhabit.
 The wild Atlantic salmon is a species which contributes significantly to the economy of eastern Canadians through the recreational fishery and to the food and ceremonial requirements of natives.
 The Department of Fisheries and Oceans must manage all fisheries, including the recreational fishery and native fisheries on the precautionary principle, but it must also devolve some of the decision making to river communities who are the ultimate beneficiaries of healthy watersheds and healthy fish populations.
 Like the salmon, the recreational and native fisheries rely on a pristine and healthy environment.
 The Atlantic Salmon Federation is carrying out a major public education and awareness program urging recreational salmon fishermen to safely release both grilse and large salmon. Our program has achieved tremendous success with many anglers releasing all their grilse as well as large salmon.
 Anglers are very involved in conservation. Many of them spend their time and money enhancing and restoring salmon populations and protecting their freshwater and marine environments. They assist us in carrying out education programs such as our Fish Friends program, which teaches conservation principles to students in grades 4, 5, and 6.
 More than 800 schools in eastern Canada and New England including all native schools in Atlantic Canada deliver Fish Friends.
 Thank you for your thoughtful editorials.
 The Atlantic Salmon Federation will continue to urge the government of Canada to implement community watershed management to facilitate dialogue among all people in eastern Canada to conserve the species and to regulate fisheries to ensure healthy runs of wild Atlantic salmon for the benefit of all Canadians.

Bill Taylor
President
Atlantic Salmon Federation

Note: In recent years, the ASF has received  a total of 5.9 million from the Federal Government :

"The Federal Government is spending nearly $100 million on the restoration of Pacific salmon to boost the recreational fishery on the west coast. The need is just as great in Atlantic Canada" Stephen Chase - VP Atlantic Salmon Federation           The Barbless Butterfly - Summer 2000

"Wild Atlantic salmon need your help. Governments must ante up more money for conservation and restoration of Atlantic salmon and their habitat. Please voice your support for saving these wild creatures so important to eastern Canada's history, social fabric and economy.........
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has seen fit to make a major investment of $400 million for a five - year plan to restore and enhance Pacific salmon on the west coast,  100 million of which is directed to wild salmon enhancement and conservation, habitat restoration and development of effective watershed management processes.
ASF and the biological station of DFO in St. Andrews NB have been developing the technology to track salmon in the Bay of Fundy to assess the impact of various suspected causes of mortality. ASF has contributed $500,000.00 (from private contributions) to this vital research that may well hold the key to the wild Atlantic salmon's survival.
DFO must now provide the leadership and funding required to continue that work and ensure its success."

Is your catch and release really catch and decease?

    "The kyped buck was bright, full bodied and classically proportioned. Resuscitated and released, presumably after thrashing, running and leaping for freedom, he should have continued upstream to sire yet another generation. Instead, his carrion carcass, like some gruesome riverborn roadkill, besmirched the bouldered shore of a Miramichi rapid downriver from where he must have been hooked and played.
    Accident? No cuts or bruises indicated trauma.
    Disease? No disfiguration or discolouration suggested infection.
    Ironically, what probably killed this fish was kindness. Anglers who sincerely profess to be committed to releasing caught salmon (in the delusory assumption that these fish automatically will survive and reproduce) are all too often ensuring, by well meaning but often meagre and misdirected effort, that their fish will wind up on shoreline rocks rather than upriver redds."

Jack Fallon - Summer 1998
The Atlantic Salmon  Journal

Note: Once you get past the hysteria of the first few paragraphs,  the writer does go on to suggest some very constructive precautions to be taken in the safe releasing of Atlantic salmon.

And who better to literally put their money where their mouths are than the ASF? The organization should take the lead in urging a five - year moratorium on all Atlantic Salmon angling by everybody who really cares about the species. To do otherwise at this late point is woefully inadequate and weak.

Andrew Stout
President Emritus of the New England Salmon Association
Letter to the editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal - Autumn 1998
 

It is a well known fact that the Miramichi no longer has a Salmon run that is sufficient to sustain a sport fishery. It is time that this river be closed or that the taking of even Grilse be prohibited.
Jim Kaye, Editor - United Fly Tyers Roundtable Newsletter  - December 1999
 
 

.........But the river system renowned as the greatest salmon waters in the world appears dangerously close to losing the fish that made it famous.
    “The Miramichi has dodged the other bullets that are hitting other rivers." said Bill Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation.  "But now the river is being hit like all the others. Its getting everyone's attention now.”
    Art Lee, a veteran angler from New York ........says......"most of his fellow anglers aren't likely to support a dying river"  "A significant percentage are going to abandon it altogether," he said.
The Globe and Mail - Thursday, Jan. 15, 1998

    In recent weeks ASF has brought the salmon's plight to the attention of millions of people through the media. Headlines from the New York Times and Canada's Globe and Mail and a host of other newspapers, radio and television reports have warned of the Atlantic salmon's demise. The federation is urging governments at the highest levels in strongest terms to take immediate action; to eliminate the remaining commercial fisheries and to undertake the research needed to redress the suspected problems associated with the declining health of the North Atlantic marine ecosystem.

    ASF is also calling upon all anglers, wherever they fish, to voluntarily release both large salmon and grilse until stocks recover. Salmon populations are well below the levels needed to sustain healthy runs, it is critical that every salmon that survives its ocean migration reaches the spawning grounds. With ocean mortality at an all-time high, we must optimize production in our rivers. Anglers can make a tangible contribution towards conserving and rebuilding the salmon populations on their river by practising catch and release. While the contribution made by an individual angler may appear a mere gesture, the combined contributions of all salmon anglers releasing all the salmon and grilse they catch is huge. Catch and release fishing isn't about allocation, or even personal sacrifice, it's about saving one of Nature's most wondrous species.

If we are to demand, with credibility, the necessary remedies, then we must be seen to be doing our part.

Bill Taylor, President  ASF
Atlantic Salmon Journal - Spring 1998

Revisionist History and the Conservaton-Minded Angler - by Fred Whoriskey
Atlantic Salmon and the Miramichi River - Phillip Lee
Atlantics Still on the Decline (ASF) - June 25, 1999
What is killing the North Atlantic salmon?
NORTH ATLANTIC SALMON CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION (NASCO)  Opening Statement by the Atlantic Salmon Federation
The incredible, disappearing salmon  October 11, 1999   By Marilyn Bauer
Atlantic Salmon On The Decrease In The Miramichi River
Group Is Seeking Total Protection for Atlantic Salmon (May 21, 1998)
Atlantic Salmon Is Facing Possible Extinction (Dec. 14, 1997)
Miramichi River that once was angler's paradise now  puzzles scientists: Where are the fish?

ATLANTIC SALMON CRISIS REQUIRES POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS

ASF Press release:  November 18, 1997

St. Andrews...The Atlantic Salmon Federation is leading a world-wide coalition of conservation organizations, seeking to save the remaining populations of Atlantic salmon throughout the North Atlantic. Joseph F. Cullman 3rd of New York called on the World Wildlife Fund today, at a meeting of its Marine Leadership Committee, in Washington, D.C., to join the Atlantic Salmon Federation in a coalition to address the Atlantic salmon crisis. Mr. Cullman, a conservation leader, is Chairman Emeritus of the Atlantic Salmon Federation and a Director of the World Wildlife Fund. He also asked the World Wildlife Fund to support a resolution, which the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Salmon Federation passed at a meeting held on November 13 in New York. The resolution calls for all salmon anglers to adopt voluntary catch and release for both large salmon and grilse until salmon populations recover.

Bill Taylor, President of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, said. "The World Wildlife Fund will be a tremendous help both from the aspect of the organization's size and influence, and its knowledge of the marine ecosystem. The problems the Atlantic salmon are facing are not unique to that species and go beyond overfishing to the disruption of the food chain and the breakdown of the marine ecosystem. Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund are integral to our cause. The World Wildlife Fund is positioned to act quickly when conservation emergencies, such as the one facing Atlantic salmon now, arise."

Mr. Taylor continued, "Most of our Directors developed their passion for Atlantic salmon on the rivers, fishing for them. They realize that drastic action is required to reduce the mortality of the precious salmon that are remaining. Therefore, our board is calling on anglers everywhere to join them in setting an example by releasing all salmon so that they can continue their journey to the spawning beds, regardless of regulations that allow retention. The Atlantic Salmon Federation will intensify its catch and release education program to reach as many anglers as possible, explaining the need for catch and release, the proper techniques to achieve maximum survival, and the research that confirms that a released fish does survive to spawn."

RESOLUTION ENDORSED BY ASF (U.S.) DIRECTORS NOVEMBER 13, 1997

THE ATLANTIC SALMON IS IN CRISIS, AND STOCKS ARE THE LOWEST IN RECORDED HISTORY.

    THE ATLANTIC SALMON FEDERATION CALLS UPON SALMON ANGLERS WHEREVER THEY MAY FISH TO PRACTICE CATCH AND RELEASE OF LARGE SALMON AND GRILSE UNTIL ATLANTIC SALMON STOCKS HAVE RECOVERED.

    THE ATLANTIC SALMON FEDERATION (ASF) IS LEADING A WORLD-WIDE COALITION OF CONSERVATION ORGANIZATIONS, SEEKING TO
ADDRESS THE CRISIS SITUATION IN ATLANTIC SALMON STOCKS.

WWF CAN HELP BY:
 

1. SUPPORTING THE ASF CALL FOR ALL SALMON ANGLERS TO ADOPT VOLUNTARY CATCH AND RELEASE FOR BOTH LARGE SALMON AND GRILSE UNTIL SALMON POPULATIONS RECOVER

2. PARTICIPATING IN THE ASF-LED COALITION TO ADDRESS THE ATLANTIC SALMON CRISIS

The Canadian Federal minister of Fisheries & Oceans (himself a recreational angler) and the New Brunswick Natural Resources minister (a keen salmon fisherman) both flew kites early in the new year, publicly speculating that an interim extension of mandatory catch and release to all salmon, whether multi or one sea-winter fish (grilse), may be a consideration as a mitigating measure in the face of extremely low ocean survival numbers last year.

Federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson told a national media reporter his options included mandatory catch-and-release of both grilse and salmon across the entire sportfishing industry; and a moratorium on the remaining Canadian commercial fishery.

And New Brunswick's Alan Graham told the Saint John Telegraph Journal if he could be convinced it would help, he would support a temporary ban on killing grilse in his province were the federal minister to implement it.

Already reeling from devastatingly low runs, closed rivers and a badly damaged outfitting industry, many anglers in Nova Scotia have become resigned to bad, then worse, news in recent years and there is already some spontaneous support for total catch and release with some anglers sending their unused tags back to the government to make a point.

Loudest objection to the concept of mandatory catch and release of grilse can be expected to come from Newfoundland & Labrador where stocks are arguably least affected, (although runs were down there last year as elsewhere) and where the primarily resident angler sport fishery is, as yet at least, much less inclined towards hook and release.

Elsewhere, however, initial reaction to the concept suggested a spectrum of response from firm support, through cautious reticence from an economic perspective, to outright opposition. Others suggest a cautious approach, warning against knee-jerk responses, in case 1997 turns out to be nothing more than a biological anomaly.

So, whatever happens legislatively this year, it is abundantly clear that the numbers for salmon returns to North America in 1998 will be of historical significance to the future of both an important species, and an ancient sport.
ASF Conservation Notebook
SPRING 1998 ~ VOL. 47 NO. 1