The press communiqué revealed that an official with an aboriginal sustainable fishery group urged the authority to suspend all salmon fishing activities on the Northwest Miramichi River system for a few years. the reason behind such demand is to rebuild the declining stocks of the species. Barry LaBillois of the Maritime Aboriginal Aquatic Resources Secretariat, said that if conservation levels are that low, then someone has to really sit down and say, ‘Enough, let’s stop the fishery.
The New Brunswick Salmon Council raised concern this week about a drastic decline of Atlantic salmon along the river system, a collection of estuaries that includes the Little Southwest Miramichi and Sevogle rivers. Council president Mark Hambrook said the use of gillnets and trap nets by First Nations fishermen in Eel Ground and Metepenagiag is a major reason salmon stocks in the area are on the decline.
LaBillois said it’s not fair to blame only First Nations fishermen. He is not convinced that restricting anglers to catch and release would be enough, and believes that cutting off the river entirely may be the only solution. He estimates 15 percent of salmon caught and released back into the river die in the process.
Norman Ward, the director of fisheries for Metepenagiag, said that the First Nation may be prepared to make concessions to help reverse the low salmon count. He also told that anglers and commercial fisheries must bear more of the responsibility for the diminished stock levels. According to Hambrook Metepenagiag fishermen generally only use gillnets for two to four weeks in June, until trap nets are set up for the season. If the Department of Fisheries worked with them to set up the trap nets earlier, First Nations wouldn’t have to use gillnets.
