Miramichi salmon fisherman frustrated by DFO's timing
A long time fisherman on the Miramichi River is not impressed with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans timing when closing salmon pools on the river.
DFO shut down 15 pools this week because the hot, dry weather and low water levels on the river could stress salmon that crowd together in cooler pools.
Marc Madore, a recreational fisherman from Blackville, N.B., has been fishing the Miramichi for close to 20 years. Madore said DFO's lack of fisheries officers and inconsistent decisions when closing and opening the pools to fishermen is frustrating.
"We have a hard time with DFO and their inconsistency of what they do, when they do, why they do what they do," Madore said.
Madore said anglers had to pressure DFO to close pools two years ago. This year he thinks they've acted too quickly, closing the 15 pools once the water temperature reached 20 degrees.
"Twenty degrees, I mean we're not in Quebec we're in Miramichi. Twenty degrees is nice water, beautiful fishing water, 20 degrees," he said.
"At 78 degrees Fahrenheit, that's (25.6 degrees Celsius), that is very stressful for the salmon. At 80 degrees (Fahrenheit), that's (26.7 degrees Celsius), then the salmon will die, but we have not reached that. We reached that two years ago, and it took DFO a week to make the decision to close it down, which they did, but by then, the water was already cold again."
One of Madore's biggest concerns is the lack of fisheries officers out on the water.
"They've got to be quicker off the mark, quicker to be able to close things down and open things up again and it needs personnel. If they don't have their staff, they can't do their job," Madore told CBC's Information Morning.
"You know they can set up all these regulations but there's not enough of them to go out there and protect the salmon."
Madore says in all his years of fishing, he's never seen a DFO officer on the Miramichi River in the summer.
"The biggest protectors of Atlantic Salmon right now is the anglers themselves, and not DFO, DFO doesn't have anybody out there. I've been fishing these rivers for over 15 years, 20 years now and I've never been stopped by DFO, other than spring fishing."