From: Sandy MacDonald Sent: February 8, 2017 2:02 PM To: dale michie; lenfishing@telus.net; Glenn Dreger; Verne Sundstrom Subject: Recent main Board meeting of SFAB high lights As most of you know, we have a central interior Sport Fish Advisory committee. It is. Populated by members of fish oriented club members from Osoyoos. To Clearwater and Salmon Arm to Lillooet. As chair of this committee, I represent our committee at meetings etc about issues that are dealt with by DFO (not the province) tho we have recently become involved in the problems of Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead. Any motions our committee passes are discussed at a South Coast committee to make sure other southern areas. (Port Hardy south) are supportive and if so they are passed to the main board where the entire coast is represented. If passed by the main board the SFAB passes it up to DFO and thence to the Fed. Minister along with DFO comments. At our local committee meeting in Nov we passed a motion asking DFO to find a way ,gear restrictions,spot closures, etc, that would allow us to fish for Chinook when there would be no incidental by-catch of endangered stocks co migrating up the Fraser or Thompson at the same time as there was an allowable catch quota on chinnook.Last summer the entire Fraser was closed to protect a poor run of sockeye, when there were paces and methods where chinnook could have been targeted with noeff ct on the co-migrating sockeye. Our motion has been passed at the main board along with similar motions from committees on the lower Fraser, so will be discussed with DFO at upcoming planning meetings. Interior FraserCoho returned in good numbers ,60,000 as contrasted with the forecast of 14,000. However, this year's run is expected to return in much lower numbers due to poor ocean survival. Cowichan River Chinook have had a decade of poor returns but the his year returns met the DfO goal of 5500 spawning adults. This in spite of the fact that 90% of out migrating smolts are eaten by predators. BC Tuna fishers got a 22,000 lb. increase to 1.118,000 lbs Maria Angelo made a presentation asking the SFAB to join a number of large environmental organizations in support of asking the govt. to put up an initial $75 million to form a new Waterershed Sustainability Fund. Citing a number of recent instances where the go to has approved developments adjacent to important rivers or streams.This fund would be similar to the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund, The fund would have ongoing funding from levies on water users. The SFAB GAVE IT'sSUPPORT Third party transportation of other people's catch Paul Ryall , a senior DFO manager, is now carrying this forward. He gave us a presentation on progress to date and indicated that DFO and the Minister realize that the BC regulation currently limiting an angler to only transport his 2 day limit t,NEEDSTO BE CHANGED The bottom line is that they are suggesting that an angler will be allowed to transport his and 4 other anglers 2 day possession limit. Fish would have to be covered by a very detailed letter signed by the person who caught the fish. Lodges,guides, pilots etc could receive exemptions to transport more tha 5 anglers fish. The time line is to have this in effect by spring 2018 Fisheries App. This will be a free app that has been developed by the Sport Fishing Institute. It is currently ready for trial by guides ,lodges, and DFO officers this summer. The app will be geolocation so you will be able to tell it where you want to fish and/or it will locate you using the GPS in your device. You will be able to bring up regulatons pertinent to the species you want to fish,show ID pics of species ,licence number and allow ou to record catch It will be updated daily You will need to have Internet access(data ) or you can download all or part of it before heading out. Note of interest Guided anglers catch 75% More Chinook than non guide anglers The average daily catch of Chinook is 1.7