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SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 71
TODAY’S WEATHER
Sunny and warm High 27 C Low 10 C
WEDNESDAY
DISCARDED SALMON
WORK CONTINUES
These scenes could be common this fall as the fish return
Plenty of projects on the go as TRU begins year
NEWS/A10
BUSINESS/A25
Sport fishery shut down SEAN BRADY
STAFF REPORTER
sbrady@kamloopsthisweek.com
In response to the continued concern over low steelhead trout returns, the B.C. government has shut down all sport fishing on the Thompson River below Kamloops Lake, along with sections of the Fraser River. The closure, which will be in effect from Oct. 1 to May 3 of next year, comes after record-low steelhead returns on the Thompson and Chilcotin rivers. On the Fraser, fishing will be closed from the Highway 99 bridge at Lillooet downstream to BC Hydro’s tail race outflow channel and from the confluence with the Thompson River to the CNR bridge. Last fall, fewer than 200 Thompson steelhead returned and only 50 Chilcotin steelhead made the trip back up the river. In response, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (an
advisory body to the government) assessed the Thompson River and Chilcotin steelhead as endangered and recommended in February an emergency order to place the fish on the endangered list under the federally controlled Species at Risk Act. So far, the federal government has not taken that action, despite a petition to do so being presented to in the House of Commons earlier this year in May. The province said that even though catch-and-release fishing accounts for a “very small percentage” of annual steelhead mortality, it is moving ahead with the closure to support the committee’s recommendations. In March, the Fraser Basin Council’s Mike Simpson told KTW that steelhead were the fish that has “fallen between the cracks,” with issues such as commercial bycatch and climate change affecting fish populations.
AN IDEA THAT HAS PLENTY OF WEIGHT DALE BASS STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
A
Antonio Ramunno with the Wallgym Resistance Training system he created. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
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ntonio Ramunno credits his family’s love — and some McDonald’s french fries — for helping him pull out of the “dark, horrible time” that followed a motorcycle accident. That crash in October 2014 left Ramunno paralyzed from the chest down and facing months of treatment and rehabilitation in various medical facilities. Almost from the moment he awoke in Vancouver General Hospital, where he spent two months, Ramunno’s family pushed him to exercise, to try to keep moving. “They would tease me with McDonald’s french fries to try and get my arms to move,” he said. “I just can’t say enough about them. They stood with me the whole time, pushed me the whole time.” And they let him turn mom Costanza’s living room into a workshop, where Ramunno designed a collection of exercise tools to help people with mobility and strength challenges exercise. While he originally aimed for those with obvious mobility issues, Ramunno said he realized the system he created would help others — seniors, people with multiple sclerosis or other conditions and those who would prefer the resistance training setup he has developed. It’s a work born out of frustration, but fuelled by his family and the people at Community Futures Thompson Country through its self-employment program. The frustration stems from Ramunno’s rehabilitation experiences. See PHSYIO, A6