Fisheries – Cheri Frocklage

Fisheries

Director Report

Cheri Frocklage

Fisheries Director The summer months are flying by so quickly. It is mid-August as I pen this Newsletter update for you and the realization that the autumn days are not so far off is starting to soak in. Where, oh where, did the summer go?

A lot has happened over the past few months. Our Field staff are back to near normal, pre-COVID participation in the stock assessment projects. As always, I extend my deepest gratitude to the men and women who make up the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) Fisheries Department that return to their respective posts year after year to provide their expertise, knowledge, and time to count the salmon, gather the samples, and compile and report out the data. Without you, the co-management of our salmon resources would not be possible. Mēduh, and as our Fisheries Manager Kerry Carlick would say, “Bless your heart.” I would also like to extend my thanks to all the members of our Tahltan Nation that were able to attend the TCG Annual General Assembly (AGA) this year, and for all the one-on-one side conversations and questions that were brought to me following the Fisheries Department presentation. Mēduh for your interests. Mēduh for your comments and questions, Mēduh for your guidance, input, and direction provided in the discussions. Thank you to my staff that attended and manned the Fisheries Department booth to answer questions and provide information to our members over the course of the AGA. I was very proud of you all.

I am providing a brief update on Canadian Harvests & Escapements to date and a more detailed report on field projects will be provided post-season when the projects are all completed.

ESCAPEMENT:

Little Tahltan Chinook – Total escapement 565 large, 650 jacks – weir pulled August 15th

Tahltan Lake Sockeye –Ongoing escapement 50,819 as of August 16th

HARVESTS:

Lower Stikine Commercial Fishery – 5,944 sockeye – closed for mainstem stock migration (low forecast), set to re-open late August for the coho fishery

Upper Stikine Commercial Fishery – 226 sockeye

First Nation Fishery – 5,658 sockeye, 269 large Chinook, 117 jack Chinook, 89 Chinook released

My sincere thanks to our Tahltan Nation members that conducted their food fish harvest in compliance with the Fisheries Department direction to conserve and protect our King salmon stocks. I am fully aware that it is a big ask of our people to forgo our right to harvest in the name of conservation. I appreciate your cooperation in protecting and stewarding these stocks for our future generations.

In mid-July, after receiving several accounts of questionable conduct by some of our members and following a long chain of internal conversations with local Leadership, we reached out to the Department of Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO) and requested the assistance of their Conservation and Protection (C&P) Officers. We were very impressed with their response time and within a couple of days, two C&P officers were here and visited the camps and net sites accompanied by our TCG Fisheries Guardian, where they were greeted warmly by most of our members. My gratitude to the DFO Officers, we appreciated your time and willingness to assist. We will be following up on these discussions with local leadership and with the DFO C&P officers over the upcoming months. We are looking to build upon this relationship and increase their presence in our fishery given that the issues seem to persist. We will also be looking into further guardian training for Margaret under the DFO Guardian Training Initiative. Further information and updates on this will be provided in future Newsletters.

Left to right: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Fisheries Officer Joseph Humphries, TCG Fisheries Guardian Margaret Asp, DFO Fisheries Officer Kevin Laarman

Fish Camp 2022