Star file photo
The organization, usually referred to as SPAWN, has announced a Turn-In-Your-Tags Sweepstakes, through which anglers will have the opportunity to voluntarily hand in their unused tags in return for a chance to win fishing-related prizes.
With each salmon licence purchased, an angler receives six tags. The tags are broken into groups of two red, two blue and two green tags, with each set of tags usable only to retain fish on certain rivers.
With so many pressures besides recreational angling on Atlantic salmon stocks, SPAWN wanted to do something to promote conservation.
“By no means are we against retention of fish,” emphasized John McCarthy, SPAWN’s acting president. “This is just our little way of doing our part.”
McCarthy said not every angler will fill all six of their tags in a given season and some may only intend to keep less than their allotted half dozen anyway. For every tag handed in, the angler will get a shot at one of the prizes.
The deadline for submitting tags is June 30 and the draw will be conducted by provincial fish and wildlife enforcement officers July 27.
With the red tags usable on any river where retention is permitted, those are the most valued tags. The first prize will be drawn from among the red tags submitted.
The second prize will be drawn from the green tags submitted and the third prize will be chosen from the blue tags. A fourth prize will be drawn from the remaining red tags handed in.
The prizes include a rod and reel set worth $1,890, a canoe valued at $1,699, a fishing trip to the Pinware River priced at $1,500 and a pair of chest waders and boots that cost $600.
Fish facts
- The Atlantic Salmon population in 1979 was 195,000 fish.
- The Atlantic Salmon population in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2012 was 229,000. Sounds encouraging, but when you factor out the success on the Exploits during that same time frame — 4,000 to 40,000 salmon, the rest of the province has basically been stagnant for all statistical purposes.
- 30 years ago, the smolt sea survival rate was between 15 to 20 per cent. Today, it is estimated to be less than five per cent.
- The Greenland fishery takes around 47 tonnes of fish a year
- The St. Pierre and Miquelon salmon fishery is estimated to be 3.5 tonnes of multi-sea winter fish per year
- The aboriginal and Quebec salmon fishery was estimated to be 79 tonnes per year in 2012
- The resident salmon angler in 2012 retained 28,000 fish in Newfoundland and Labrador, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimates to be 70 tonnes. 48,000 salmon were released in the province that year.
- In 2012, the province sold just over 23,000 resident and 1,500 non-resident salmon angling licences.
Source: The Salmon Preservation Association for the Waters of Newfoundland
