Keith Piercey isn’t sure what difference, if any, the provincial regulation limiting the number of salmon recreational anglers can catch and release at 10 will have on the fishery.
The Corner Brook man has been involved with the Salmon Preservation Association for the Waters of Newfoundland (SPAWN) for some time and is currently editor of the association’s SPAWNER Magazine.
The Department of Fisheries and Land Resources said Monday that it had amended the Wildlife Act to cap catch-and-release salmon angling activity to a maximum of 10 salmon per licence until July 20.
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Fisheries and Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne announced the 10-fish limit at a news conference on May 25.
On May 31, the 10-fish limit per licence was included in a press release announcing the sale of salmon licences for the western and central areas of the province.
DFO had previously set a catch-and-release limit of three salmon per day in its 2018 salmon management plan.
Questioning if Byrne had the authority to do to bring in the new regulation, Piercey contacted DFO for clarification on which regulation should be followed.
On Friday, he was told it was the three-fish a day by DFO, but to contact the province for further information on provincial regulations.
Piercey for one doesn’t see the need to implement the 10-fish limit.
“The likelihood of most people hooking three fish a day is so remote,” he said.
With 20,000-30,000 anglers, he said, there might be 95 per cent that don’t ever catch three fish a day.
“And trying to police it. I really don’t see how it can possibly be policed.”
Piercey said if a warden saw someone release a fish on South West Brook in the morning that in order to prosecute them under either regulation they’d have to follow the person around.
“He might go from river to river, several rivers the same day. You’d have to follow them around all day long.
“It just can’t work.”
Byrne said the 10-fish limit is a start of the process to regulate the hook-and-release fishery and his authority to implement the regulation comes from within the Wildlife Act. He said those who say the two regulations are in conflict are wrong.
Within the commercial fishery, he said, a fisherman may have a 10,000-pound quota, but they also have a 3,000-pound daily trip limit.
He said it’s two regulations that are totally in tandem with each other, which is what is happening with the DFO three-fish-a day limit and the province’s total 10-fish limit until July 20.
Byrne said the rational for the limit of 10 comes from DFO’s own science that says one in every 10 fish that are hooked and released will die and that every river can only sustain a one fish retention.
The two are complementary to each other, he said.
“It’s about conservation. It has no motive whatsoever.
“But it has the side consequence of making all anglers, retention and hook and release, equal participants in the angling season.”
