“We sell fishing gear, so it might not be beneficial for us to have a closure, but it’s a benefit for the fish.” Matt King, manager at Robinson’s Outdoor Store, 1307 Broad St., said he agrees with the closing.
Right now, the Cowichan River is a creek, it’s so low, he said, though some sizable chinook salmon are getting through. Seymour said the Cowichan peoples close the river every year to preserve fish stocks during the summer. “So I’m glad is taking this drought seriously,” said Bill Seymour, elected chief of the Cowichan Tribes. It voluntarily suspended its own fishery on the river in May and asked the province to consider doing the same. “I don’t know how many letters they have received from I don’t know how many groups, but I do know it’s an awful lot.”Ī group that expressed happiness Friday was the Cowichan First Nations. “The government shouldn’t have had to be pressured like this,” he said. Joe Saysell, a longtime guide on the Cowichan River, now retired but still active in a group called Friends of the Cowichan, said his group and others have been writing letters since May urging the rivers be closed to fishing. The province is urging all residents to conserve water, especially those drawing from wells, lakes and streams. The Qualicum (Big Qualicum) and Quinsam rivers have enough water to protect fish populations and are exempt. Major rivers affected by the closing are Caycuse, Chemainus, Cowichan, Englishman, Gordon, Little Qualicum, Nanaimo, Nitinat, Oyster, Puntledge, San Juan, Sooke, Trent and Tsable. The closing will help to protect fish stocks when they are especially vulnerable. Also, the shallower water can become too warm, causing stress to fish and making them more vulnerable to diseases. As a result, salmon, steelhead trout and other fish can fail to make it upstream to spawn. When rivers get low, fish can be trapped or stranded in pools, cut off from the main stream. The closing covers the area south of Bamfield on the west coast and south of Campbell River on the east coast. Starting today, fishing is closed in all streams and rivers on the Gulf Islands and about half of them on Vancouver Island. “Some are saying, ‘Maybe it should have happened sooner,’ but we wanted to make sure the science was right,” Thomson said. government has closed rivers and streams to fishing on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands after raising the drought rating to its highest level.Ĭampfires have been banned provincewide and other open burning severely limited.Ĭonditions reached a point where the fishing restrictions became necessary, said Steve Thomson, minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations.
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