Incentives to thin out commercial fi shing fl eet

DFO seeks to lesson the strain on threatened salmon, encouraging First Nations to transition to other species

By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor

With the aim of thinning out the commercial fi shing fl eet to lessen its strain on threatened salmon stocks, the DFO has announced another round of licence buy backs, including an upcoming program that encourages First Nations’ communal operations to transition to other species of fi sh. Staff from Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced the new initiatives at a technical briefi ng for media on Dec. 14, a $123-million suit of programs that includes voluntary salmon licence retirements, incentives for communal First Nations licences to transition away from salmon and a plan to dispose of commercial fi shing boats. The licence retirement programs are part of the federal department’s $647-million Pacifi c Salmon Strategy Initiative, a push announced in June 2021 to rebuild vulnerable salmon populations on the West Coast. According to Canada’s Species at Risk Act, 24 of the Pacifi c salmon populations are “endangered”, with 10 listed as “threatened” and another seven falling under the “special concern” category. The DFO has blamed this decline on “climate change, habitat degradation, pollution, land and water use, acute events like toxic spills and landslides, and fi shing pressures,” according to a Dec. 14 press release. There are currently approximately 2,030 licences to catch Pacifi c salmon on a commercial scale, according to Jeff Grout, DFO’s salmon resource manager. Less than 1,300 of these licences are directly eligible for retirement, with the remainder being communal licences, including those shared by members of a First Nation. The DFO’s aim is to encourage the transition to a “smaller, more fi nancially viable and sustainable fi shery for those who remain.” “More specifi cally for the commercial fi shery, we think that there is far more harvest capacity in the fi shing fl eet than there is opportunity to catch fi sh, and this is in part making the fi shery economically unviable,” said Neil Davis, the DFO’s regional director of salmon management. He explained that under the voluntary retirement program licence holders can submit bids for the department to purchase their regulated right to catch. “The department will view those bids, and make decisions about which bids to accept or not,” he said. “The purpose of this program is really to support that transition to a smaller commercial harvesting sector that is better aligned with the scope of harvest opportunity in the fi shery for the foreseeable future.” This is not the fi rst time a fi nger has been pointed at the commercial sector as a threat to stock recovery. One month after the Pacifi c Salmon Strategy Initiative was announce in 2021, the DFO closed 60 per cent of commercial salmon fi sheries on the B.C. coast, with more shut downs the following year. As salmon closures are expected to continue, many in the industry fear that their licences have dropped in market value, thereby lowering the amount that the DFO would off er in the voluntary retirement program. “We will not be considering licence values from 2021 and 2022, to exclude the potential impacts of those long-term closures on licence valuation,” said Davis in response to the concern. The voluntary retirement program is

Photos by Eric Plummer Commercial boats fi sh the Alberni Inlet in the late summer of 2022. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is introducing more opportunities to retire commercial licences in order to lesson the strain on threatened Pacifi c salmon stocks.

nothing new, as the DFO has been buying back licences for decades, and now the commercial fi shing fl eet is approximately half of what it was in the mid 1990s. Ahousaht fi sherman Andy Webster sold his Area G licence to fi sh off the west coast of Vancouver Island years ago. “It was pretty hard to make a go of fi shing at the time. I was penny pinching when I decided to sell it,” said the lifelong fi sherman. “It was to the point where I fi shed by myself for four or fi ve years with no crew because it wasn’t viable. I wasn’t able to pay a living wage to my sons.” That was when Nuu-chah-nulth began their case to fi sh commercially in their territorial waters, an Aboriginal right that fi ve First Nations had affi rmed by the B.C. Supreme Court in 2009. Webster now fi shes for part of the year as part of the T’aaq-wiihak rights-based fi shery, which the Ahousaht, Hesquiaht, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint, Tla-o-qui-aht and Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations participate in. Hesquiaht fi sherman Vic Amos also harvests with T’aaq-wiihak, but is among the few Nuu-chah-nulth-aht who have kept an Area G licence as well over years. Amos recently completed his 50th fi shing season, with the help of his two sons. “We started in the middle of May and we were done by the fi rst week of November,” he said. “But I started to work on my boat in January to get it ready for the season.” Although the Nuu-chah-nulth have a constitutional priority to access salmon, Amos needs his Area G licence to remain in the industry, as allocations under T’aaq-wiihak aren’t enough. “If I relied on that, I would not be able to make it from one season to the next,” he said. “There’s not enough allocation to make it profi table. The only way that I survive is that I have other fi sheries.” During the Dec. 14 technical briefi ng, the DFO staff were asked how the voluntary retirements will not favour larger companies to stay in the industry over family-owned operations that are struggling to make ends meet. “Whether you voluntarily choose to participate in this program or stick it out, there’s some benefi t in some form available to you,” said Davis. “If you want to depart, this licence retirement program off ers you payment in exchange for your retirement. If you choose to stay, presumably there will be fi shing opportunity that you may benefi t from.” “Based on our data from the last fi ve years, somewhere between 50 to 70 per cent of each or our fl eet has been actively participating in the fi shery, the remainder has not,” noted Grout. “We do expect there will be some interest in the program from a number of those folks.” Although it’s being presented as a voluntary buy back, Amos sees the whole process of restrictions, closures and retirements as a means to “starve out” the smaller commercial operators. “They’ve been curtailing us since 1980,” he said. “They’ll probably just reallocate to a diff erent sector that’s a priority - like the sports priority, that’s a political priority.” In recent years, Area G commercial allocations for chinook off the west coast of Vancouver Island have been less than what the recreational sector has been permitted to catch, leading some to suspect that the federal government is favouring the sports fi shery and the tourism dollars it generates. “What really bothers me is when they gave the recreation people priority,” said Webster. “I think the whole idea was to kick the whole commercial fl eet right out.” If the commercial fl eet continues to thin out, Amos fears losing the coastal infrastructure, like local fi sh processing plants, that the industry relies on to continue each year. “We have an Aboriginal right to fi sh. Our problem is that we need the nonnative fi shers to support the infrastructure on the west coast,” he said. “If you buy up all of the licences and get rid of the non-native fi shers, the native fi shery is not large enough to sustain the infrastructure.” Another new initiative was announced on Dec. 14 that specifi cally pertains to First Nations: The Pacifi c Salmon Indigenous Communal Commercial Licence Alternation Program. This gives Aboriginal groups and communities the chance to exchange a communal salmon licence for funding, which would then be applied towards gaining access to another species. More information and a website are expected to be available in the new year. “As they will be switching to non-salmon species, they will have other needs in order to make that transition,” said Duncan Stephens, DFO’s director of Indigenous programs. “So there is support contemplated in the program for incremental costs associated with things like gear, modifi cations or upgrades, vessel modifi cations, training or other capacity that might be needed to make that transition to non-salmon species.”

Photos by Alexandra Mehl The Alberni senior boys squad opened their tournament by beating Ballenas from Parksville 107-61 on Jan. 5 (above) followed by a 95-74 win against Stelly’s the following day.

ADSS senior boys claim tourney

The local basketball squad rallies together to win the tournament against defending champion, Carihi, after starting the fi nal quarter tied with the Campbell River team

By Alexandra Mehl Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Port Alberni, BC – The ADSS senior boys basketball team have taken home the Totem championship after rallying together to beat the defending champs, Carihi. At the start of the fi nal quarter on Jan. 7 the two teams were tied, and the Alberni District Secondary School team took to the court determined. As the minutes went on the crowd grew with intensity, alternating between cheering and chanting, as the two teams battled for the win. Prior to the fi nal game Craig Brooks, coach of the Alberni senior boys basketball team, predicted the game would be a “nail biter right to the end, as long as we’re doing the things we want to do.” With each basket, the crowd grew louder and louder with victory on the horizon. The ADSS senior boys ended up stealing the win 59-51. “These guys rallied,” said Brooks. “I mean, they love each other, they work for each other…. They’ve worked hard for this.” “We’ve talked a lot about how we’ve been overlooked right from the get-go,” added Brooks. “They’re fi red up. They want to prove a point this year… every step of the way, we’ve learned lessons in victory and losses and we’re just building. We haven’t hit our peak yet, [and] there’s more to come.” The fi rst game for the ADSS boys was against Ballenas on Thursday, Jan. 5, which they won 107-61. The following day the boys played Stelly’s and won 95-74. Ty Cyr, a Grade 11 student at ADSS who was named most valuable player for the Totem Tournament, said one of the challenges the team faced was nerves. “You got all your classmates, your family, your friends, [and] the band playing,” he said. “It’s a big deal so that takes a big part mentally.” Liam St. Onge, Grade 12 student at ADSS, captain of the senior boys basketball team and one of the tournament All-Stars, agreed with Cyr. “Defi nitely adjusting to the atmosphere makes you want to give 110 per cent,” said St. Onge. St. Onge described the energy in the gymnasium as electric. “Totem’s been, by far, the funnest crowd, function, [and] tournament… I’ve ever played basketball,” said St. Onge. “It’s crazy how much love is in

The ADSS senior boys team won the Totem tournament after defeating the Carihi Tyees 59-51 on Jan. 7.

the gym every night for the team, [and] for the town.” Brooks said that the crowds lift their spirits. “They’re playing for each other, but they’re aware of how much ADSS athletics means to the community,” said Brooks. “Everyone wants nothing but the best for the boys and they just feel it, and it pushes them forward.” The Senior Boys North Island Playoff s, which will name the qualifi ers for Islands, will be hosted at ADSS from Feb. 16 - 18. “This team, they deserve to be ranked provincially,” said Brooks. “We’ve gone from believing we can be to knowing we are.”

ADSS senior girls, defending Totem and V the court in a fi erce game against Belmont on Jan. 6, coming away with a 2-1 record

By Alexandra Mehl Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Port Alberni, BC – The ADSS senior girls basketball team took home third place at their Totem tournament, after giving it their all. “The girls played hard,” said Steve Sperger, coach of the Alberni District Secondary senior girls basketball team, refl ecting on the Jan. 6 game against Belmont. “They worked all game long, gave their best eff ort. And that’s all I can ask really, as a coach.” Sperger said that the team is disappointed. They had won the Totem title last year, and aimed to win it again, he continued. “We couldn’t fi nd our off ensive opportunities as well as [Belmont] did,” said Sperger. “Defensively, I thought our girls just worked hard and gave it everything.” “Today was defi nitely a challenge... we played [Belmont] last year so we had an idea of what we were up against,” said Hannah Rust, a Grade 12 student at ADSS and captain of the senior girls basketball team. “It was a pretty physical game today. So I think we’re gonna have some bruises tomorrow.” ADSS senior girls fi rst played Kwalikum on Thursday, Jan. 5, winning 48-44. In their second game they fought tooth and nail, ultimately losing to Belmont 56-40. In their fi nal game against Nanaimo District Secondary the senior girls won 55-44 to place third overall in the tournament. After facing the Alberni squad, Belmont went on to play in the fi nals against Pacifi c Christian, winning 56-49. Rust said that playing in Totem is an “unforgettable experience”. “As a senior it’s kind of bittersweet this year, just because it is our last year,” she said. “The school culture here is just amazing, I don’t think you could fi nd anything like that anywhere else.” Natalie Clappis, Grade 12 student at ADSS and captain of the senior girls basketball team, said that Totem will be a memory she will have for the rest of her life. “We know our bench is cheering for us. But when the crowd’s screaming and roaring for us that just makes it 10 times better,” said Clappis. Sperger said that he is proud of the hard work and eff ort. “We’re not just building athletes here. We’re building people,” said the coach. “You can see that growth and development as a group, how they’re coming together and how they’re working together to create goals for themselves and beat challenges with each other.”

ADSS senior girls, defending Totem and Vancouver Island champions, leave it all on erce game against Belmont on Jan. 6, coming away with a 2-1 record

ADSS senior girls basketball team took home third place at

Totem tournament, after giving it their

“The girls played hard,” said Steve Sperger, coach of the Alberni District Secondary ecting on the Jan. 6 game against Belmont. “They worked all game long, gave their best eff ort. And that’s all I can ask really, as a

ger said that the team is disappointed. Totem title last year, and aimed to win it again, he continued. “We couldn’t fi nd our off ensive opportunities as well as [Belmont] did,” said , I thought our girls just worked hard and gave it everything.” “Today was defi nitely a challenge... we played [Belmont] last year so we had an idea of what we were up against,” said Hannah Rust, a Grade 12 student at ADSS and captain of the senior girls basketball team. “It was a pretty physical game today. So I think we’re gonna have some bruises

rst played Kwalikum , Jan. 5, winning 48-44. In their second game they fought tooth and nail, ultimately losing to Belmont 56-40. In nal game against Nanaimo District Secondary the senior girls won 55-44 to place third overall in the tournament. Alberni squad, Belmont nals against Pacifi c

“We’re not just building athletes here. We’re building people,” said the coach. “You can see that growth and development as a group, how they’re coming together and how they’re working together to create goals for themselves and beat challenges

Photo by Alexandra Mehl Sophia Bill and Alberni’s dance team excited the crowd throughout the Totem basketball tournament.

Totem Spirit: Dance team member Sophia Bill vies for the tournament award

Students at the Alberni District Secondary rallied the community together with school spirit during the 67th Totem contest, including an exuberant Tseshaht youth

By Alexandra Mehl Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Port Alberni, BC - For Alberni District Secondary School, Totem is an annual basketball tournament that rallies ADSS and the broader community together with school spirit. Sophia Bill of Tseshaht First Nation was in the running for Totem Spirit, a competition that refl ects school spirit. Bill is a Grade 12 student at ADSS and a member of the dance team. Totem Spirit is a competition of the “ultimate school spirit,” reads the ADSS Totem tournament website. The candidates, representing their respective school teams and groups, assisted with the tournament and rallied the school together to create the special and cheerful atmosphere that ADSS experiences each year at Totem. This year Totem Spirit was awarded Bill’s fellow dance team member Jayden Blake, who received the recognition at the end of the tournament on Jan. 7. The dance team brought school spirit to Totem 67 with performances between games and at halftime. They also “cheer on the crowd” and the basketball teams throughout the tournament, said Bill. Bill was excited about the atmosphere cultivated during the tournament, which took place Jan. 5-7. “You don’t really have that anywhere else,” she said. “I’ve actually attended Totem my whole life. So, [running for Totem Spirit] seemed like the perfect way to top off my experience at Totem for my fi nal year,” said Bill. “If I didn’t do it this year, and I didn’t run, I might regret that decision in the future.” Bill’s family has lived in Port Alberni for many years and has regularly attended the tournament. Her family is also involved in the event: Bill’s mother is the current ADSS cheer team coach, and her father is a former ADSS basketball coach, Bill explained. Sophia Bill “I kind of grew up around it all the time,” said Bill. Bill said that running for Totem Spirit was a rewarding experience for her. Besides Blake, Bill’s competition for Totem Spirit included Pallas Cote-Wallin, Vanderlyn Dennis, Jordan Maczulat, Alex McDowall, and Macee Norlock. This year the dance team is also welcoming many new additions. “We have a team of a lot of Grade 8s this year,” said Bill. “I think that’ll be really cool to see them all experience [Totem] for the fi rst time.” Bill’s mom registered her in dance at a young age, and ever since then she has been in love with all forms of the art. “I love it all. Ballet is really… beautiful and I love that,” said Bill. “Tap is really fun, and jazz has so much energy…Jazz is kind of what you’re going to see at Totem.” “[Dance has] taken over my whole life. So, the dance team seemed like just another way to do what I enjoy doing,” she added. Bill has been on the dance team for fi ve years, and this is her fi nal season. “Which is kind of bittersweet,” she said.

Photo by Cindy Ross Players that represented Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation at the 2022 Junior All-Native Tournament are hoping for success at this year’s tournament in Nanaimo. Tla-o-qui-aht basketball teams seek success at JANT

First Nation prepares to send three squads to the upcoming contest, which will be in Nanaimo, March 19-24

By Sam Laskaris Ha-Shilth-Sa Contributor

Tofi no, BC - Cindy Ross is hoping experience her players gained at the 2022 Junior All-Native Tournament (JANT) will pay off at this year’s event. Ross is the head coach of the Tla-o-quiaht Qu?usin’mit, a boys’ under-17 squad that is expected to fare well at the 2023 tourney, scheduled for March 19-24 in Nanaimo. Snunymuxw First Nation will play host to the event, which will feature Indigenous squads from across the province competing in both girls’ and boys’ divisions at the under-13 and under-17 levels. Ross’ charges had some success at last year’s event in Kelowna. Her team ended up winning the consolation championship. “It was the fi rst year for this team there and it gave them a good base,” she said. “They know how hard this tournament can be.” Ross is hoping her club can register victories early on and keep winning matches on the championship side of the tournament this time around. “We have average height but we’re very quick,” Ross said. Knowing what to expect should be a huge plus, Ross added. “It’s going to mean a lot,” she said of the experience garnered at the Kelowna tourney. There’s no doubt the Tla-o-qui-aht squad will have a veteran and experienced team at this year’s event. “We only lost two players to graduation,” Ross said, adding the club will have nine returnees on its roster. “And we’ll lose fi ve players this year.” Key members of the Tla-o-qui-aht squad include guards Jeff rey Tom II and Anthony Robinson as well as forward James Ortiz-Castro. There is no qualifying tournament to enter the JANT. But the Qu?usin’mit side has fared extremely well in the two events it has entered thus far this season. For starters, it ended up with a fourthplace fi nish at a tournament, which included 12 participating teams, in Port Alberni in October. And then last month the Tla-o-qui-aht side entered an event hosted by Ahousaht First Nation. Ross’ club ended up playing in two separate divisions at that tourney. It captured top honours in its under-17 grouping. And team members then managed to more than hold their own competing against some adults in the men’s division. The Tla-o-qui-aht club ended up placing second in the men’s grouping. There were fi ve teams that participated in the men’s division. Ross is hoping members of her Tla-oqui-aht squad will be able to play again collectively before heading off to the JANT. But the team does not have any upcoming games scheduled at this point. “Tournaments over here just seem to pop up so we’re hoping that there will be at least one more for us,” she said. “But it’s hard sometimes to get to these events.” Ross’ 11-player roster features fi ve individuals that are members of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. The other half dozen players on the team are members of other First Nations, but they do have some Tla-oqui-aht ancestry, making them eligible to suit up for the Qu?usin’mit squad. Besides having played together at the 2022 JANT, Ross added many of the players on her team are rather well acquainted with each other. “A majority of them play at the same high school team,” she said. That would be Ucluelet Secondary School. Tla-o-qui-aht’s roster includes a pair of players who toil at the high school junior ranks while the other nine are all senior players. Meanwhile, the Nuu-chah-nulth contingent at the 2023 JANT will include two other Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation clubs. The TFN Wolfpack will be competing in the boys’ under-13 division. And the TFN 1st Ladies are registered in the girls’ under-17 category.

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Pronounced ‘Clu aa klum kim chew shook ee N’aas 2023 ooh aa tlth look jim alt click alth’ It means ‘May you all enjoy this New Year, we have 2023, be careful and happy!’ Supplied by ciisma.