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From YouTube: MARCH 23 2021 Statements Jordan Sturdy
Description
The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
1st Session
42nd Parliament
A
Thank
you,
mr
speaker.
Mr
speaker.
Last
week
I
explored
the
lack
of
a
science
basis
for
the
federal
government's
ill-informed
decision
to
curtail
recreation
fishing
for
chinook
around
down
in
the
south
coast
during
the
2020
season.
The
concern
remains
that
this
restriction
will
be
repeated
again
this
year,
despite
chinook
stocks
being
virtually
absent
during
this
chinook
fishing
prohibition.
What
is
not
absent,
however,
mr
speaker
is
the
overwhelming
presence
of
pinnipeds
seals
and
sea
lions
have
been
hunted
by
first
nations
for
millennium
and
others
since
contact.
A
However,
since
the
1970s
they
have
been
protected
according
to
rob,
bison
fisheries
stock
assessment
biologist
with
the
ministry
of
forest
lands
and
natural
resource
operations,
pinniped
populations
in
the
strait
of
georgia
have
increased
from
in
the
1970s
less
than
10
000
animals
to
more
than
80
000
animals.
Today,
over
that
same
period,
chinook
and
coho
salmon
populations
have
had
a
converse
trajectory
with
smolt
survival
during
transition
to
open
ocean
appearing
to
be
tremendously
affected.
A
Unquote
estimates
suggest
that
seals
may
be
consuming
5
million
juvenile
coho
each
year
or
about
half
the
area's
annual
juvenile
population
up
to
15
million
chinook
juveniles
meet
the
same
fate
or
about
a
third
of
that
juvenile
population
in
terms
of
returning
spawners
and
any
recreational
fisher
among
you
will
have
the
experience
with
pinnipeds
when
you
have
a
fish
on
your
line,
while
freshwater
conditions,
ocean
conditions
and
marine
competition
for
feed
are
very
relevant.
Mr
speaker,
pinniped
predation
is
by
far
the
most
impactful
variable
on
the
survival
of
chinook
and
coho,
from
smolts
to
spawners.