UFAWU-Unifor Fishermen
Head Office 326 12th Street V3M 4H6 New Westminster, BC, Canada

Register for tomorrow's UFAWU convention! Contact [email protected] or 2506004814.Register for tomorrow's UFAWU convention! Contact [email protected] or 2506004814.

Fraser Report by Darrel McEachern I was at the above Zoom Meetings last week where the FR Sockeye 2020 run and escapement were reviewed and the preliminary 2021 forecasts for Sockeye and Pink were presented. Sorry to be the messenger of bad news, but there is nothing good about Sockeye or Pink for either 2020 or 2021.... A lot of the time at these meetings is taken up by treaty obligations and detailed analysis which doesn't affect us directly. Here is the bad news about 2020: The 2020 Sockeye run came back at p10 with 311,000 Sockeye to the spawning grounds which is only 36% of the long-term cycle average escapement. The later run had the worst return at only 5% of the cycle average. In recent years there has been a drastic decline in productivity attributed to poor marine survival due to warm water in the Gulf of Alaska. Here is a summary of the forecast for 2021: The PSC is using a different model for 2021 which will take into account the very poor productivities of recent years. The result is a 2021 p50 forecast of 1,300,000 Sockeye and 3,000,000 Pinks. At those returns there will be no commercial TCA on either Sockeye or Pink in 2021. On a brighter note, the Big Bar fishway is making progress and the high sea temperature conditions in the Gulf of Alaska seem to have abated, but the damage has been already been done for the 2021 returns. The fish don't care about the PSC forecasts and we can always hope for a miracle, but it sure doesn't look good for 2021. A change coming is that the PSC is considering moving the Cottonwood test site to Brownsville Bar, just below New Westminster. Regards, Darrel McEachern

The 63rd Convention of UFAWU-Unifor is fast approaching and we are encouraging all members to attend. The event will take place on the 17th and 18th of February and will be held over Zoom. Please register by contacting Union staff at [email protected] or by phone at 250-600-4814.... Note the deadline for resolutions is February 12th. This will be an important event for the future of all BC fisheries we hope to see you there! For more details on the convention, please see visit the link below.

Hi a brief update on the Future of the Commercial Salmon Fishery Conference and Report: The Conference was well attended around 100 active fishermen registered. They were divided into 10 breakout groups and dealt with 5 topics over the 2 days: More salmon; allocation; access; governance; licencing- exits and entrances Over 200 recommendations were made and recorded by the facilitators and presented to all fishermen in the plenary session on the afternoon of the final d...ay. The recommendations have been put into one document by Liam (UFAWU) and Taylor (Ecotrust) staff. At a report out to the leadership group, a subcommittee from the Leadership Group that worked to put on the Conference volunteered to each take a topic, make sure all the recommendations were included, and to make them into some kind of readable order. Once the sub-committee is satisfied that all the recommendations made at the conference are all reflected in the grouped recommendations, they will be sent out as a draft report to the leadership group who organized the conference.. If they think it accurately reflects the conference recommendations, we will then send it to conference participants and those active fishermen who could not attend. We will ask fishermen to respond to the recommendations and either support, change or comment or add something we have missed. This may be in the form of a survey don’t know yet. Once we have the comments back, we will try to put together a final report of recommendations to take to governments. We hope to do that by late next week. Thanks, Joy

UFAWU-Unifor: JOB POSTING Work together with us to build an industry to support working fish harvesters, tendermen, and shoreworkers and their fishing communities Position: Business Agent... Administration and Policy Research/Reports Contract: One year contract with potential for contract renewal Hours: Full time salary full time (37.5 hr/week) Location: expect to travel-coastal BC Office location: During COVID-19 virtual Post COVID Vancouver Island Start Date: March 15th, 2021 APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 24, 2021 for more details go to: https://nebula.wsimg.com/39d426504e13eaf5c6a8527170cb91c6

DFO has the following on their website: "If you applied prior to October 1 and have not yet been contacted by either Service Canada or Fisheries and Oceans Canada, please contact the Service Canada Call Centre at 1-833-674-8283 (TTY: 1-800-465-7735) to discuss your file." "If you applied on or after October 1, please contact the Service Canada Call Centre on or after November 23."... IF YOU PHONED THIS # LAST WEEK - PLEASE NOTE THAT THEY HAVE ADDED MORE OPERATORS AND WAIT TIMES HAVE BEEN GREATLY REDUCED. It is best to phone them because they can tell you if you are missing some info. For example - some Banks or Credit Unions needed more numbers at the front of your normal account # that you may not have been aware of. And then the Bank may have sent your cheque back. Or the operator can tell you if there is some other info you may be missing. Or they can let you know if they are just slow in getting your cheque out. It's the pits, we know but we are tryinng our best to get them to speed up.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ALL COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN - There are 3 NEW processes CRITICAL to commercial fishermen:... 1. DFO CONSULTATION on the FOPO Report on WEST COAST LICENSING 2. SALMON ALLOCATION POLICY (SAP) CONSULTATIONS SAP sets allocation policy between Commercial, First Nations and Sports 3. FUTURE OF BC SALMON FISHERY - can we fix it? DETAILS in the three POSTS BELOW on this FB Page or, for all reports on one page - go to https://www.ufawu-unifor.org/ufawu-reports-and-links.html

Fishery Notice Salmon: Chum - Mid Vancouver Island Update - Areas 14 to 19 - Update November 12, 2020 FN1230 Areas 17, 18, and 19 Escapement estimates to date are as follows: ... Nanaimo River, Nov 8 43,700 Target Escapement 40,000. Cowichan River, Nov 11 139,500 Target Escapement 160,000. Goldstream River, Nov 11 live + dead 10,300 Target Escapement 15,000. In the Nanaimo River, the target escapement for Chum was assumed achieved on November 2. Commercial opportunities which began November 4 continue with both gill nets and seines fishing. Effort has dropped considerably with approximately 10 gill nets and 3 seines in the Nanaimo area. Total gill net catch is estimated to be between 7,000-8,000 Chum and seine catch is estimated to be approximately 2,000 Chum. Commercial fisheries will continue until further notice. In Area 18, in the Cowichan River, the current escapement is estimated to be approximately 139,500 Chum. The DFO will continue to monitor escapement and will contact fisheries representatives Monday, November 16. In Area 19, Goldstream Chum escapement is tracking to meet the target escapement. Stream walks by the Goldstream Hatchery crew will continue. Next update will be provided to fisheries representatives on Monday, November 16. Area 14 Escapement estimates to date are as follows: Puntledge River, November 10 24,000 Chum - Target Escapement 60,000. Big Qualicum River, November 10 11,360 Chum - Target Escapement 85,000. Little Qualicum River, November 10 25,303 Chum - Target Escapement 85,000. No full fleet commercial fishing opportunities are being considered in Area 14 in 2020. Areas 15 and 16 Escapement estimates and observations to date are as follows: Sliammon Creek, November 4 4,502 Target Escapement 11,000. Theodosia River, November 2 11,739 Okeover Creek, November 4 2,219 Jervis Inlet, October 26 5,000 (aggregate)- Target Escapement 85,000. Commercial fishing opportunities are not expected in 2020 due to low pre-season forecast levels of abundance. The next Mid Vancouver Island Chum Update will be Thursday, November 19.

Salmon: Gill net and Seine - Area E and Area B - Area 17 - Closing for the Balance of the Season - November 16, 2020 FN1240 The Area E Gill Net and Area B Seine fisheries currently open in Area 17 will close tonight, November 16, 2020 as scheduled at 17:00 hours and will not reopen tomorrow. Area 17 will close for the balance of the season. Area E and B fishers who took part in the Area 17 fishery over the last weeks are reminded that they are required to phone in their catch as part of their conditions of licence. Failure to do so may result in charges and/or more limited opportunities in the future.

Excellent letter from fisherman James Lawson to Dr. Daniel Pauly at UBC Institute for Oceans and Fisheries about herring: Hello, My name is James Lawson. I am a commercial fisherman, and in recent years I have become involved in work surrounding social issues in fisheries on the BC coast. The most recognizable projects I’ve been involved in are the FOPO recommendations about sharing risks and benefits in BC fisheries, and sitting as part of the Wild Salmon Advisory Council fo...Continue reading

Fish Safe passed on this important RECALL notice IMPORTANT SAFETY ALERT Limited Recall FitzWright Liferaft... We have had limited instances of FitzWright Liferafts experiencing unplanned and premature inflations. Initial investigation has revealed the Inflation System’s Firing Pin retaining clip has been experiencing material degradation on the clips that secure it to the Firing Wire/Painter Line. In these limited instances, the weakened clip has failed, allowing the release of the firing pin, which then allows gas from the CO2 Cylinder into the liferaft, causing the unplanned and premature inflation. This material degradation does not prevent the proper and planned inflation and deployment of your liferaft from occurring, should you need it While the likelihood of premature inflation is very small, this issue left uncorrected could result in damage to your liferaft or injury to persons near it, should it inflate unplanned and prematurely. We are implementing a corrective action that mandates replacement of the defective component. To avoid potential damage to equipment, this part replacement should occur at your earliest practical opportunity. To facilitate the Firing Pin Replacement Service Bulletin in the safest and most expeditious manner for you, we will be replacing at no charge to you, the existing Inflation System Firing Pin on your Liferaft. You will be responsible for complying with any normal recommended service procedures and transportation of the Liferaft to and from the service facility. To determine if your liferaft is affected by this limited recall, please contact FitzWright Survival Inc. at: [email protected] 1-888-523-0221

Hi - This is the info about PAYMENTS for the Fish Harvester Benefit that the Union received: "With regard to the application from XXXX [a fisherman] while I have not done a check with Service Canada on his specific file, I would note that we are experiencing delays in payments due to system issues that has resulted in more manual intervention, especially for any applications filed after October 9. Service Canada is working to clear the backlog and they hope to have them all c...ompleted by October 30 with payments on or around November 5. If Mr. XXXX has not received anything or heard from Service Canada by early next week, let me know and I will follow-up on his file specifically with my counterparts at Service Canada." That's directly from the DFO guy from Ottawa. We know everyone is frustrated. We are too!!!! Joy

1. DFO CONSULTATION ON WEST COAST LICENSING POLICIES The FOPO report: WEST COAST FISHERIES: SHARING RISKS AND BENEFITS made 20 recommendations, that if followed can change LICENSING in BC so that the the value of the fish caught, goes to the fisherman who caught them. https://www.ourcommons.ca//RP10387/foporp21/foporp21-e.pdf... DFO is now holding consultations on the Report recommendations To access the recommendations and DFO’s CONSULTATION POWER POINT, go to: https://nebula.wsimg.com/20a15e0eac5f4104ebe0862d82bde04c

2. SALMON ALLOCATION POLICY (SAP) CONSULTATIONS SAP SAP sets allocation policy between Commercial, First Nations and Sports. DFO is consulting on this policy:... Here is a link to the present policy: https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/240366.pdf Here is a link to the TERMS OF REFERENCE for the NEW POLICY that they are presently CONSULTING on: https://nebula.wsimg.com/368dbb62c6946a6a449ccab7fae93c9a

A long but EXCELLENT article about the East Coast Lobster Dispute. It explains the various outcomes of Marshall, DFO's drive to corporatize the fishery, a drive for ITQs, community management and other interesting things. Here are 2 teasers... "Maybe there’s no one to hang the blame on. That this is a situation that is the result of what you could call collective trauma on several sides. The biggest collective trauma being what’s happened to Indigenous people in this part of the world, but also the collective trauma of what’s gone on in the fisheries. Also what happened to the Acadians. There’s a lot of stuff way beneath the surface. It’s not lawyer stuff, it’s not bumper sticker stuff." "The inshore fishery is going to be weaker as a result of this. I mean, they’ve lost the high ground in public opinion, not locally, but nationally. So if I was the offshore [Clearwater (similar to CFC)] I’d say, That’s a good thing. It’s not that they hate coastal communities, it’s a business plan: owning the whole value chain is a good business plan." https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca//in-search-of-common-groun/

FISHERMEN: Please APPLY for Employment Insurance even if you do not have your ROE. If you do not have a ROE please call your fish company and REQUEST one. Your ROE can be submitted to Service Canada after you have completed your application. Do Not Wait!

3. FUTURE OF SALMON FISHERY After 2 back-to-back disastrous years DFO established a Working Group from BC Industry and First Nations on the future of the salmon fishery. The Union’s position is that the salmon fishery must be changed so that fishermen who want to fish salmon are able to do so and make a decent living, and those who want to retire can do so with dignity.... Working Group Purpose Statement: The commercial salmon fishery industry in British Columbia is being significantly impacted by ongoing and persistent environmental and socio-economic challenges, now further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Immediate solutions are needed to support both the immediate and long term viability of the industry. A small group of federal, provincial, Indigenous government and industry representatives are invited to explore ideas and develop options to address the sustainability and future of the west coast commercial salmon industry. The outcome of this process will inform government policy direction and be used as part of seeking broader feedback and input from external partners and stakeholders in the future. Here is a link to the Draft Terms of Reference including the members of the working group: https://nebula.wsimg.com/6d2905c4c54f0c4ad8f57c15af6e3e8f

Chum - Mid Vancouver Island - Areas 14 to 19 - October 29, 2020 FN1177 Update Mid Vancouver Island Chum Update (Areas 14 to 19) ...Continue reading