Anglers need a unified voice to protect salmon

This column is an opinion piece by Gord Follett, an avid outdoorsman who lives in Mount Pearl. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ. 

Despite criticism from catch-and-release supporters that it would be a waste of money, and the science has already been proven, in 2018 our provincial government ignored Atlantic salmon hook-and-release studies from around the globe and set out to do its own analysis at a cost of $500,000.

The results of this three-year study proved that, yes indeed, this widely accepted conservation practice works — even in Newfoundland and Labrador!

A 96 per cent success rate, in fact, when waters are 18 C and cooler.

The study measured Atlantic salmon survival after hook and release and tracked many of the factors that affect survival, such as water temperature and release technique. It took place at Western Arm Brook on the Northern Peninsula and, according to government officials, was the most extensive review of the effects of hook-and-release angling on Atlantic salmon that has been conducted to date.

Research was carried out by biologists with the department's Wildlife division, with in-kind support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The angling occurred each summer from early July when the salmon entered the river until early in the fall, and covered water temperatures of 5 to 23 C (average 15.8 C). After release, the fish were tracked using seven radio telemetry stations along the course of the river, and regular telemetry flights. Individual fish were tracked from one to 300-plus days, providing good estimates of short and long-term survival.

This is obviously great news for those of us who support and practise hook-and-release angling, the vast majority of whom, by the way, also like to tag and bring a couple of fish home for the table each year. And it would be easy, perhaps even somewhat gratifying for catch-and-release advocates on occasion to smugly remind those staunchly opposed to it of these findings.

But rubbing it in would do absolutely nothing to curb some of the controversy, and to bridge the great divide this issue has created among salmon anglers in recent years, thanks in no small part to the stinging tentacles of social media.

Here's part of an editorial I wrote for the Newfoundland Sportsman magazine in May 2018: "Up until a few years ago, we were getting along rather admirably on the riverbanks and at pondside, with — for the most part, at least — retention and release anglers respecting each other's decision. Opinions were shared, mind you, and disagreements were sometimes noted. But it certainly wasn't an all-out 'us against them' public confrontation."

The widening rift

I could see the rift widening, though.

While we had already seen glimpses of its ugly side back then, social media really took root from there. And now look at us. What a shame! 

Make no mistake, it's our wild and majestic Atlantic salmon that suffer most when decisions affecting them are based primarily on politics, such as what we continue to witness today in the ocean-based salmon aquaculture industry.

Findings of this study are not likely to change the minds of all those opposed to catch and release fishing. We know that, even though the protection and future of Salmo salar is their ultimate goal as well. 

For the sake of our salmon, we need some sort of a team effort, a unified voice going forward.

So what can we do to change or at least curb this infighting?

Where can we start?

How can both sides work together to ensure that DFO and the province do more to protect this resource?

If we have the same ultimate goal, surely that's got to be enough common ground to get started, even if we have to agree to disagree on certain matters.

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