Hardy expecting to actually make the ferry I’d taken the Millstream Lake Rd route from west shore to Swartz Bay, and was obliged to wait for the 1700 to Tswassen.  I texted my cousin P to confirm I could stay the night with him, crossing the rockies into Edmonton the next day.  The GPS lady was giving wild and misinformed directions, and mistrusting her, I became lost in the labyrinth known as Burnaby, and when I finally found the house and windows to the apartment locked.  My innate sense of direction defied, combined with the frustration of a rewardless quest, beligered my ego and I departed immediately for Kamloops in a great bout of denial.  For a long while I staved off the impending eventuality of denial by blaming the deficiencies of my hypocampus on Burnaby’s defunct layout and Paul’s locked window.  Hilariously, it was when I passed Hope that I felt acceptance of my directionlessness begin to sink in, and it was from the great mercy of the Father that I was provided with a distraction so I might never need to admit any shortcomings in my navigation-skills.

About 50km towards Merrit at around 20.00 I saw a man hitch-hiking on the icy Kokahala.  If I hadn`t stopped he might have frozen alone, and his Langford dinner jacket reassured me that this hitch-hiker was legit.  His story put my small predicament into perspective.  He was discovered at the Greyhound station by a friend of his older sisters, who insisted he just catch a ride with him to Vancouver.  Partway down the road his serendipitous driver began to suffer from bouts of schizophrenia and paranoia, induced by shrooms he`d consumed prior to leaving Merrit.  That`s when the accusations began flying, and north became south, and fairies began flying next to the passenger-side window.  My new friend had bolted out the door in a panic, and believing himself to be closer to Merrit than Hope, began 3 hours of hitch-hiking in the wet snow and howling wind.

You should listen to these mountains at night.  I stopped past Kamloops in complete darkness.  The valleys like sleeping mouths breathe cold smells of crushed snow and bleeding pines.  A passing car becomes a rocket ship, alien, roaring strangely.  The world you come from seems so backward and irritating, disowningly foreign.  And on a clear night, cars do seem to pass through the very same heavenly blackness of the sky, and all is blackness and stars.  I fell asleep in darkness, and woke to the most startling sight.  All the great, black shapes of the rustling mountains still lay sideways in sleep.  Their blankets wrapped tight about them, stirring occasionally with the sound of their breathing.  The world had turned from blind to blinding.

Best Song Ever of the Day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0-bUtJjSeA

In considering such frivolities I missed the ferry to Quadra Island, and very nearly missed the second while frantically wheeling around Campbell River in search of the “one true” official BC Ferries parking lot.  Instead I parked it on the surplus concrete that the downtown grows like an abundance of zurg-creep.  The delay left me with just enough time for a good cardio as I went from the ticket-concession to the boat-ramp.  If I caught a ferry every day, I could do marathons.

The water of the Strait is full of tides, currents, and counter currents that make it sufficiently dangerous to want to kayak.  I love to watch the tides pulling against the currents, and the current pushing back against the fetch, and all swirling around one point like an explosion in a blender.  The sky is dragged spiraling downwards through the whirlpools that descend to the seafloor like the finger of God.  These pools so hypnotic it is dangerous even to gaze into them.  Like the eyes of a succubus, they will pull you in from afar.  The pull of a whirlpool between two currents is a lot like a meteor, cutting through an imagined border between the atmosphere and space.  It runs along the fabric of gravity like a crack caught between two halves of a window, a spiral of fire reaching out for earth.  How terrifying a tornado would look from the surface, where it would first be seen from a few meters away, when it was too late.  I heard of cars and cattle being ripped apart by the forces of tornadoes.  Surely combined with the weight of water a whirlpool would easily crush a person.

I hope to improve on my experience with tornadoes, but I don’t share Baum’s natural perception of them as gateways into other worlds.  However, from above its marine counterpart looks fully equipped for inter-planal transport, and staring through the snarled and foamy teeth of a whirlpool brings to mind all the lungless, marine aliens that ever terrified us from that other world.  The entire hoard of the celestial monsters would number 1 to 10 to their cousins in the sea, whose imagined depths incubated horrors more massive than the whole assembly of dragons.  Inky masses writhing with hankering tentacles thick as anchor-cables, leaching the blood like the goodness of dreams from the valiant countenance of our ships, gurgling in trivial suffocation as they descended to the surface of another world, whose foreboding pillows disgorged a thousand worms every sizes, and congested the deck with the cracked bones of faceless beasts, half-dead, whose mouths protrude from sockets intended for eyes.  Drowned sailors were tossed mercilessly through restless dreams or rummaged delusionally through the filed faces of toothy-toungued sea-swine for the likenesses of their loved ones.

Anyways.

My dear friend A and her boy S picked me up at the ferry.  I’m their first guest, and they showed me an awesome time!  The whole family lives on Quadra, and they’re establishing a kind of empire there made up of small conjoining properties.  We toured around in the truck then settled in for some Irish coffees.  Later we resolved to visit the beach.  We colleted A’s sister, D and went to the bay to build a fire against a rock, which began crackling loudly.  We imagine the rock to be a giant, unincubated ogopogo egg, and I hoped it would emerge like a sandworm from the surface of Dune.  Alas it was a mere rock with no such sinister contents.  S did try sitting on it, though, to the devilish injury of his nethers.

Later we went to the pub for a cultural experience.  Quadra Islanders seem pretty rad.  We all dressed in togas and flailed around on the dance floor with the locals.  I danced with the server, who looked eager to bust a move, and with S, and A, and D and everyone really.  I met an old-timer named Rod who, with little encouragement, told me the most fascinating near-death experiences involving fish-hooks wrenching him by the hand into processing machines and logging blocks blasting past his nose like bullets from Hellboy’s revolver.  Out in the smoke-pit the local anti-hipsters sprouted ironies like alfalfa pastures from the corners of their cheeks, and sighed passive insults that billowed up in the air and settled among them, beckoning a fist fight none were ballsy enough to pick.  Later we went to a house-party, where they charged us all a 5-dollar entrance fee, which we imagine went to the local dealer for some kind of dabbling we didn’t care to share in.  I was happy chattering away, but we left early as the general disposition of the rabble disagreed with S, who only wanted his money back.

I love Quadra Island.

Definitely check this out

The Peak Reminded me of this today:

The conversation of the morning included discussion with uncle J about the coffee industry, pricing, and grading.  We committed to hiking up a hill that rises behind the town, but rain complementing a slight gale deluged the family’s enthusiasm.  The weather seemed volatile and dangerous, so J and I took his boat sailing.  ”Chase Me” is a 28 ft 1986 fiberglass flatdeck with a rolling foresail.  I’d never sailed a flat-deck before.

We also tried out a new GoPro 1080, which collected disturbing footage of my pocket’s insides, whose cryptic depths have never before been filmed!  We sought some pretty wild fetch out past Green Point, south of PR, and had a good time surfing it back into port.  I wanted to dive the harbour and inspect J’s hull, but the ferry arrived abruptly and on-time, which was unusual considering the crew’s apparent disposition for cancelation.

The hours on the ferry were spent browsing Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” on a new Kobo Touch.  I am happy to be reading it now, as I have often considered it.  I also recommend a book I started this morning, Claude C Hopkins’ “My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising” , lent to me by Aunty L.  It seems very readable, rich, practical and its first pages are loaded with excellent advice for this high-paced, high-stakes, high-as-psilocybin industry.

Speeding is perhaps my strongest vice and once in the van I enjoyed a brisk race to Prince Rupert, where I was welcomed by my sister and brother-by-marriage, A and S.  I was hungry, and therefore grouchy, and it was good to slup some homey cabbage stew in my belly.

I took the van to the rez gas-station, showed my papers, and was flustered when the attendant rejected the status-confirmation sent to me by the dept of Indian Affairs declaring my new status.  His east-Indian origin, my white skin, and curly hair might’ve contributed to his bewilderment.  I’m keen to get my photo ID.

Today I was introduced to Becky’s friend, Levi, a marvelous joker and connoisseur of wit.  He stayed over and played a round of Dominion with us.

Went through some pretty wild music today w/ Alana, including fervent Hungarian flamenco, surreal Bulgarian traditional, gallant Mongolian throat singing (which I discovered through this very excellent Mongolian movie, now with a new version I might watch.  if you don’t like blood, then just watch this one.  I own it and will lend it to you), fun Inuit throat singing, hypnotic Balinese Gamelan, and this controversial footage.  All this lead to the most amazing footage captured by special cameras place in the wings of WWII RAF planes, intended to capture snaps of Nazi stuff exploding, to simply relish in their boyish delight and raise moral morale among the brave citizens during the bombings.  Which calling is higher would be difficult to say.  If you watch that last link, mute the cliche soundtrack, and listen to this classic norse war poem instead.

Now I’ma study Physics and listen to Yann Tiersen

Quadra Tomorrow

We consumed a breakfast of manporridge with my uncle and aunt back at the homestead and gobble home-made strawberry jam straight out of the jar then grab his shotgun (Remington 870) and rifle (Remington 700)

After a brief pit-stop at McD‘s we’re ready to go.  We relished the ensuing destruction of a walmart-poster featuring the cast of our favourite show.

Later the uncle and I talked technology and theology before heading out to Lund to check out the new dock which benefited from new expansions and improvements.  I hope to help him sail north from the PR dock to relocate.  The people there rock, and I hope to share a beer with a couple down there tomorrow.  ’Parently the skip wrought this giant aluminum houseboat from his own two hands.  Don’t know about you, but it reminds me of this guy.

Later Bethany and I watched the Wild One with Marlon Brando.  Perhaps its portrayal of such loveable gangsters is a little ridiculous.  It contrasts so perfectly against modern films by the likes of Guy Richie.  They’re more like merry-men than villains.  Also Josh and I watched Raising Arizona – a terrifying bathos featuring this unfortunate man.  At least I’ll confess I shared a little of Bethany’s nostalgia at the sight of Arizona in so many clips.  But Sarah and I are now about to enjoy Daniel Craig’s  Cowboys and Aliens, which should be suitably mindless enough to usher forth dreams as beautiful as any Joseph’s.

Quadra Island’s comin next

Song of the Day Here
found this workin’ with Alan the other night.  Listens well on repeat.

Doug Marmion recently ran Australia’s second language survey.  His department’s singular task was to measure the health of Australia’s 791 known indigenous languages.  With this in mind, the 281 submissions generated more or less ‘fell short’ of representing the population.  The systemic irrelevance of the government’s accompanying lack of intent to actually use the information further obscured the purpose of the exercise.  I was on the verge of despair until a true hero in the back row challenged, ‘this entire process is very…dumb.  Why are you running another survey if it doesn’t help these languages?’

Marmion explained that he was merely meeting the demands placed upon him, deflecting blame on bureaucracy.  Governments and academics measure success in documents and paper, in the tangible fossils of knowledge rather than their living and growing forms in people’s minds.  The survey commission is the linguistic equivalent of our own dear DFO, who count our dead but do nothing to save the dying.  They are cataloguing extinction.  The slogan from Mall Cop would suite the bureaucracy perfectly: “Observe and Report”.

What is a bureaucrat except someone indifferent to futility?  So many academics are to content score-keeping their useless databases to change their jobs themselves.  If they proclaim to be frustrated, then they should teach and learn the languages they study.  May we be sure to disown such complacent acceptance in the shadow of our own language’s fate.

At the wise advice of the esteemed Kevin Brosario, I began avoiding the lessons whose descriptions included the words ‘catalogue’, ‘document’, ‘lexicon’, and ‘orthography’.  Soon I was no longer squirming in frustration, and began enjoying myself.

Chris Schmidt encapsulated my frustrations well in his lesson called ‘Navigating Conflicting Native Speaker Choices about Orthography’.  He pointed out that focusing on orthographies and lexicons have done little to help languages.  To the contrary, they can frequently divide and incite speakers discouraged by nitpicking at pronunciation differences as the entire language dies.  This ostracizes learners and further fragments busted communities.  And as another linguist, Alistair McVorne, commented, “The destruction of communities is poison to language.”  Sound familiar?

Academics think we speak to write, rather than write to speak.  But as long as the language is not being learned it is too early to care if it is being properly spelled.  Focusing to much on the written language also divides generations.  Elders feel intimidated because they can speak their languages, but not spell.  Youngsters feel inadequate because they can spell their languages, but not speak.  Spelling properly is nice, but it isn’t as important as speaking.

The traditional curriculum’s lack of ‘conversation’ led McVorne to dispense of it.  For this official Gaelic bodies ostracized his program.  His method of teaching was to keep students well-fed and happy, to go outside often, and to speak.  This curriculum was inspired by his own lessons he described as ‘hanging out with elders at the pub’. His program has produced fluent speakers and created Gaelic-speaking homes.  Is it pathetic that speaking language surprises academics as a revolutionary way of learning?  Is it surprising that those who focus on teaching language see the best success?

Another testament to this method is the successful Australian Gamilaraay Language program.  Students repeat traditional stories after elders until they can pronunciate and repeat the story in its original language.  They also write, then translate their own stories.  Within five years they have gone from ‘asking and answering simple questions’ to ‘participating in ongoing language exchanges’.

Conclusions from the conference:

It is ridiculous to sit around discussing language if no one is learning it.

Success should be measured in language use rather than archive expansion.

Language is challenging, but simple: to learn you need merely to use it.

Finally we can stop feeling intimated by our language.  Haida belongs to us, mispronunciated or misspelt.  You can only make mistakes in living languages.

Finally there is dragging, also called trawling. This method is now generally recognized as exceptionally destructive to coral habitats and other life, like sponges,₆ It has often been compared to under-water clear cutting, only more terribly scarring. 

“I can picture what forestry would be like if it were handled like dragging. Here’s the procedure: first find a native forest, an old one. Then smash it with some gargantuan machine that crunches down trees in footprints the size of a football field, and also chews up the ground. Scoop up all the trees, broken logs, branches, splinters, and pick out a few specimens that seem worth gathering”.₇

Interestingly, the David Suzuki Foundation denies that trawling is the marine equivalent of clear-cutting, and suggests that some ocean-bottoms may be perfectly suitable to this method of fishing.₈ 

1) Gabriel, Otto et al. Fish Catching Methods of the World. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005)

2) Russell, Dick. Striper Wars: An American Fish Story. ( Island Press, 2005)

3) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1963 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1963)

4) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1985 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1985)

5) ibid.

6) “Trawling” David Suzuki Foundation. http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Oceans/Sust_fisheries/Trawling/ 

7) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1978 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1978)

8 ) “Trawling”

While Area 25 does have a history of trawling, the DFO database shows no records of trawlers ever catching salmon there. However, because of the intricate nature of oceanic ecosystems, it is reasonable to presume that the devastation of the sea floor by trawling has taken its effect on the salmon populations.₁

The commercial fishers account for a much larger portion of annual catches in Nootka Sound, but there is the matter of pleasure fishing. Eric Wickman had this to say about it:

“Most sport fishermen think that they can’t affect the stock, because they only “catch a few fish.” But if 267,113 sport fishermen always had to wear a day-glo fish logo on their forehead, they would become better acquainted with their numbers. And the argument that “I only catch a few” might sound unconvincing to themselves.”₂

Statistics published by the DFO appear to contradict this position, and show that the 11,835 recorded recreational fishing trips in Area 25 in 2006 yielded only 9,505 salmon while commercial fishing accounts of 510,003.3 This comes to 0.8 salmon per trip, and shows that sport fishing cannot have as much impact on salmon populations as commercial fishers. Where Wickman might have a better point is that sport fishers often cloud about certain areas, leaving others entirely untouched. Such a concentration of sport fishers may have an impact on certain popular salmon fishing sites, which are plentiful in Area 25. In considering the fuller impact of sport fishing in Area 25 garbage, transportation, and equipment should be taken into account.

1) Dragging Our Assets: Toward an Ecosystem Approach to Bottom Trawling in Canada. Scott Wallace, PhD, David Suzuki Foundation, 2211 West 4th Avenue, Suite 219, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6K 4S2 2007

2) Wickman, Dead Fish and Fat Cats, 45 

3) 2006 West Coast Vancouver Island Annual Summaries of Catch and Effort. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2006)

The Last Arms Race

As new technologies were made available to the public, the fishing industry at Nootka became continually more efficient, and salmon could be caught more easily in larger batches. Advancements included such common modern tools as GPS, or the “Global Positioning System” which was made available to civilians by the Reagan administration in 1983.1 LORAN, the Long Range Aid to Navigation, also came into common use although this tool was much less wieldy and far less precise than GPS.2 A functional LORAN-A system was patented in 1974 and made available to commercial fishing vessels.3 Fish finders also came into use, being first patented in 1978.4 These devices use sonar to detect schools of fish. When they were first introduced, such devices were only used by larger vessels, but soon became widely available.

In his book, Dead Fish and Fat Cats, Eric Wickman describes how “competing fishing boats are like nations on the brink of war.”7 All these devices were developed for war. Here, just as in war, two parties have been squaring off against one another in a perpetual escalation of sophistication in armaments. But in this game of technological escalation there are two races to the finish. The first is boat-to-boat, where failure to adopt the newest technological advancements could mean disaster for a fisher. The last race is between the fishers and the fish. Inevitably, all of these technologies made fishing grow in efficiency in excess of the rate that fishes could reproduce. The difference between the efficiency in catching and the ability of fish to spawn is the emptiness of the streams and inlets in provincial waters, as in Area 25.

1) Leick, Alfred. GPS Satellite Surveying (John Wiley and Sons, 2004) 4

2) “Loran Signal Synthesizer” Free Patents Online. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3832708.html?query=%22LORAN+A%22&stemming=on

3) Brogdon, Bill. Boat Navigation for the Rest of US. (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001) 92

4) “Fish Finder” Free Patents Online. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4104609.html?query=fish+finder&stemming=on

5) Wickman, Dead Fish and Fat Cats, 24

The End.

 In 2008 Area 25 produced a commercial catch of 2,112 salmon, all of which were chinook.1 While I searched for any legislation that would explain the list of zeros indicating the 2008 catch for coho, pink, chum, and sockeye, I could not find any evidence of licensing or quota restrictions that had actually taken place. The numbers say it all. Starting at 2006, populations begin to descend the final slope, terminating in a tidy row of zeros.

In the search for evidence of any actions taken on the part of the DFO, I encountered numerous plans and policies. For instance, there is the Canada Policy for Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon2 from 2005, which in describes how it is intended to respond to criticism regarding its ineffectuality. Policy changes outlined in the 2005 publication include monitoring, counting, and assessing. On the other hand, the Oceans Act of 1996e and Species at Risk Act of 2002r provide a layout of how action may be taken. Unfortunately none of these appear to assert any specific actions that Canada or the province will take. It is unfortunate that in managing the war on our oceans, our best initiative has been to count the dead, assess their vacant homes, and then restructure the army. The idle language in which these documents are articulated would seem to account for their impotency, and spell out the impending death of our oceans.

1) Pacific Region Regional Data Unit. West Coast Vancouver Island Annual Summaries of Catch and Effort, 1984-2006

2) “Canada Policy for Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon” Fisheries and Oceans Canada. http://www-comm.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/publications/wsp/wsp9_e.htm

3) “Oceans Act” Department of Justice Canada. 31.03.2009 http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/O-2.4/index.html 30.03.2009

4) “Species at Risk Act” Department of Justice Canada. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/s-15.3/text.html

5) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1963 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1963)

Initial Biodiversity

When Europeans first encountered the northwest coast of North America, they found a place teeming with life. For most of these areas, like Nootka Sound, no precise number exists to estimate the numbers of animals that occupied the region’s sky, forests, oceans, and rivers. But there are some records expressing the immense quantity of life that thrived in this region of the world. This abundance emerged during the summer salmon-spawning season. During August, the rivers of Nootka Sound and its surrounding region were transformed by masses of these fish. It was by this large quantity of salmon congregating at Friendly Cove that the crew of the Boston were lured to their fates. On 22 March 1803 the natives at Friendly Cove attacked them, killing all of the crew but two. John Jewitt was one of the two that survived to enslavement. During his stay with Chief Maquinna he saw the remunerative traditional fishing methods used at Tashis during the August salmon catch:

“A pot of twenty feet in length, and from four to five feet diameter at the mouth…is placed at the foot of a fall or rapid, where the water is not very deep, and the fish drive from above with long poles, are intercepted and caught in the wear…In this manner I  have seen more than seven hundred salmon caught in the space of fifteen minutes.”4

1) British Columbia Catch Statistics, Deparetment of Fisheries of Canada, Pacific Area, 1952

2) Fisheries Statistics of British Columbia 1952 Federal Department of Fishereis in Vancouver Under Arrangement with the Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa

3) Summary Commercial Statistics, 2008 Pacific Region Regional Data Services Unit

4) Adventures and Sufferings of John Jewitt

Later on he continues, “Such is the immense quantity of these fish, and they are taken with such facility, that I have known upwards of twenty-five hundred brought into Maquina’s house at once…”1

Because Jewitt’s journal features many questionable inconsistencies and biases, it may justly be presumed that his extraordinary description of the abundant salmon is mere exaggeration. But even if four hundred fifty salmon were caught in the space of thirty minutes, it would still be an exceptionally larger catch compared with the meagre 9,505 salmon caught during August and July of 2006. This was the result of an effort made by 11,835 recorded recreational fishing trips in Area 25, the region specified for jurisdiction by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) including Esperanza Inlet and Nootka Sound.2

The Salmon at Nootka Sound

Salmon are not only essential to ocean ecology, but also provide nutrients like protein and nitrogen to the region’s forest plants and animals.3 The five species of salmon act together like a five-stranded chord that visibly tie the oceans to the land, tangibly demonstrating the interconnection between aquatic and terrestrial environments. Nootka sound is home to all five species of Pacific salmon: chinook, chum, pink, sockeye, and coho. They spawn through the eight rivers of the sound including the Zeballos, Thasis, Gold, Leiner, Perry, Sucwoa, Canton, and Tluoana Rivers.4 Each salmon species has a different life style, and each lifestyle helps in supporting marine and terrestrial environments.

1) Adventures and Sufferings of John Jewitt

2) Pacific Region Regional Data Unit. West Coast Vancouver Island Annual Summaries of Catch and Effort, 1984-2006

3) Coastal rainforests: Unlocking the mysteries Dr. Reimchen’s lab http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Forests/Forests_101/Science.asp

4) Nootka Sound and the Surrounding Waters of the Maquinna

Nootka provides a reasonably reliable record for a region where Europeans first found the oceans and forests of the coast, still greatly unaffected by human industry. This provides a good look at the potential of northwest coast ecosystems. Because of its social and economic history, Nootka also provides a fine microcosmic example of the history of its surrounding coastal regions.

To precisely outline the impact of fishing on the ecology of the west coast as a whole would require a deep familiarity with pacific fisheries research. Such an extensive record of the environmental significance would require volumes. Here, an introductory understanding and a limited amount of information are used to provide the convicting evidence that follows. Every new article, record, and essay founnd continues to reveal the vastness of our influence on the earth and on the alien worlds beneath the sea. 

The Methods

Area 25 has experienced every method of fishing typical to the Vancouver Island coasts. It has also supported numerous salteries and canneries.1 The modern methods used at Nootka Sound include trolling, seining, gillnetting, trawling, and sport fishing.

Troll fishers drag several lines behind a boat, with several baited hooks per line. They move back and forth over popular fishing grounds and reel fish in as they bite. In the 1960s a typical troller could be 32 feet long. Seven hooks could be tagged onto six lines. One fisher working eighteen hours a day like this could yield about 2500 pounds of fish every seven days. This is about three hundred and fifty seven fish.2 By the 1980’s, trollers had increased in size and ability. A 45 foot boat could now venture into deeper water for

more time, with a larger crew, more lines, and about one hundred hooks to a line. This would yield 40,000 pounds of fish per trip, or about 5,714 fish.₃ By 1995 trolling accounted for 92% of catches in Area 25.₄

1) Newell, Dianne The Development of the Pacific Salmon-canning Industry: A Grown Man’s Game. (McGill-Queen’s Press, 1989)

2) Wickman, Eric. Dead Fish and Fat Cats. (Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2002)

3) Ibid.

4) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1995 Commercial Catch Statistics, Pacific Region (1995)

In 1951, when the DFO began publishing records of fisheries, seining was quite popular in Nootka Sound, accounting for 36% of salmon catches.₁ A seine sits vertically in the water, suspended from floats at the top of the net, and kept down by the weights below it. When the two top ends of the net are attached to them, two boats can encircle a school of fish using this net. This method is particularly effective when catching schooling fish like salmon.₂ In Area 25 seining has been popular since the beginning of the fishing industry here. In August 1789 Captain James Colnett of the Argonaut dipped his seine into Nootka Sound when it still bustled with life:

“Fish are in great plenty the Principle sorts are the small sardine, a silver fish like a Breem, also a Gold colour’d one with Blue Longitudinal stripes having from ten to thirty young in them. Salmon, Salmon trout, Flounders, Skate, Eels, Sculpins, Cod some of each of these kind of fish were caught in the seine”3

By 1951 seining accounted for 36% of salmon catches in Area 25. Of the fishes caught by seine, nearly 96% were chum.₄ Seining gradually declined in popularity, accounting for 19% of salmon catches in 1963,₅ and 16% in 1973,₆ until finally in 1978 Seines accounted for only 3%₇ of the catch in favour of trolling. This method recovers briefly in the 1980s, and then falls completely out of use.₈ Seining is always most effective at catching chum salmon, and as populations of chum decline or grow it appears as though seining quickly follows in use.

1) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1951 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1951)

2) Gabriel, Otto et al. Fish Catching Methods of the World. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) 441

3) Colnett, James. Ed. Galois, Robert. A Voyage to the Northwest Side of America: The Journal of Captain James Colnett. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004) 113, 114

4) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1978 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1978)

5) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1963 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1963)

6) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1973 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1973)

7) Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1985 Commercial Catch Statistics: Pacific Region (1985)

If you are interested in this topic I suggest you google “Big Fish and Fat Cats”. The book is available in its entirety online, and gives a good impression of the frustration fishers often feel for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Ultimately I repent of wholly blaming the DFO for everything, as numerous interviews with fishers in Prince Rupert over the Summer have convinced me that this is one of those “Who Killed the Electric Car” issues, where there are multiple parties to blame. Ultimately complacency and ignorance towards aquatic stocks and environments in fisheries are displayed by both the brave, solitary entrepreneurs and the whopping, commercial corporations; international, national, and local management; and both foreign and domestic groups.

While the West Coast of Canada might scoff at the mismanagement of Atlantic cod it also commits the same blind apathy for the fate of its own stocks, some which have already collapsed.

Graham In Response to an article by Foster

1) Environmentalism is not explicitly attatched to anyone’s political alignment. It is embraced by tree-huggers and loggers, anarchists and capitalists.

2) The green movement is not yet mainstream. If it were then we would be beyond the stage of questioning its legitimacy.

3) In his comparisons with religion Foster does not question the legitimacy of Environmentalism, but of religion. It is “irrational”.

4) Foster assumes that Capitalism and Environmentalism are incompatible.

5) Environmental practices have already been embraced by many companies, frequently to their benefit.

6) Economics is its own system of assumptions failing to address its own market inefficiencies to the convenience of its adherents.

7) Free markets do not explicitly effect resource exhaustion or environmental destruction, however often they are used to justify such poor planning.

8) It is irrational to assume that Environmental sentiments are dangerously anarchistic, or that environmentally conscious employees should be anymore inclined to overthrow their employers than advocates of any other belief.

9) Sustainability is just as open-ended as HR. Goals can be set for both. Its broad definition could be just as easily used as a tool against it.

10) Few beliefs can fail to be ‘activist’.

11) It is irrational, imperious, ignorant, and non-academic to imply “Climatism” is a disease or associated with terrorism. If Foster celebrates democracy than he owes much to the spread of unconventional ideas, or mind-”diseases”.

12) Finally as per columnists Foster enjoys the benefit of critical immunity by citation omissions. I am skeptical as to how many commentators are actually freaking out about Environmentalism becoming a religion, and officials might actually scoff at the idea. Evolution is also a scientific theory, and it has never been elevated to the legal stature of religion.

This column is rife with logical fallacies, rides on sensationalism, depends on questionable assertions, and profiles on religious, political, and classist basis. 

A person truly interested in the legitimacy of environmental assertions should first consult the sciences ( who Foster proclaims Environmentalists to be against ) and peer reviewed articles – two areas in which Foster appears to yield no credentials.

Andrew in response to Graham:

I didn’t take the time to dissect Foster’s article but I follow you. 

I view it like this:

1) The climate has changed before and indeed changes several times a year in most areas, so this is nothing new nor to be feared. Fear is the largest driver and I think largely revolves around the 2004 tsunami killing so many people. It placed fear into our hearts and that fear must be eliminated by reason, which is largely lacking in Environmentalism. The real issue of a changing environment is thus: How can we work with it and what opportunities does it represent? Is it even a threat? 

2) Climate change and man-made pollution are commonly linked together and this is a logical fallacy as has been proven many times. This is the major weakness preventing widespread adoption. Simply, it’s nonsense. THE REAL ISSUE is not climate change, it is pollution. Both camps largely miss this. 

3) Europe is dying. Why tether ourselves to a sinking ship?

4) It may be cynical to call Environmentalism a religion, but then again, what differentiates it?

5) Calling Environmentalism dangerously anarchistic is true. If taken literally, the civilized world would cease to exist tomorrow. Environmentalism is bitterly, irrationally protectionist and would herald a return to tribalism via such unworkable (on a large-scale) ideals as the Hundred Mile diet. Economies would grind to a halt. The clearest example of Environmentalism as realized in this article last existed before the Industrial Revolution.

In conclusion, what is commonly referred to as Environmentalism is a definite threat to the civilized world, and the constant binding of Climate Change to pollution is an ad hoc fallacy. However, what is not a threat and is indeed good is a thoughtful approach to refitting the modern order of the Earth. Current practices are in many cases wasteful, dangerous, and polluting. Therefore I consider this an opportunity and perhaps the greatest one we will see in our lifetime, but it must be taken in moderation and with wisdom and not the fervor commonly associated with revolutions.

I also see that in spite of the grand intentions of the Copenhagen summit, everyone still got there on fossil fuels. This illustrates a major point: things are what they are, and there is no sense skirting the issue. Instead of diverting billions of dollars in a gesture of sentimentalism, the money should be spent at home on environmental advances. Reality must be dealt with and accepted before any attempt at change. 

Reality indicates that big “E” Environmentalism is an unworkable, extremist belief system that, if not a religion in function, is at least a religion in form.

Graham In Response to Andrew:

1) Yes the climate has changes over time, but When the climate changes at such drastic rates it is because of mass disaster. Extreme change is part of a ‘natural cycle’.

2) Hystericalism is used as the sell-point of many ideas. Take Swine Flu. But the realities of global warming extend beyond mere media capitalization of terror. If anything scare-media is harmful to warming being taken seriously, as it arouses the denial of skeptics and generates hopelessness among the public. Both are useless positions that inhibit the real generation of solutions.

3) Environmentalism needs entrepreneurship, the most integrit form of capitalism. Frequently the weakness of environmentalist movements is their failure to embrace proactive solution making. Instead they substitute well meaning, but disempowered, protests and publications. This resort stems from a lack of understanding between the sciences, the environmentally passionate, and the entrepreneurially ambitious.

4) Yea. The real problem is pollution. This is a new perspective to me, and now I suppose the approach of adherents is to weigh heavily upon the consequences of pollution. Being from a marketing background I have been taught to show benefit to the audience. I suppose for environmental friendliness it would be improved health, better quality of life, and above all prestige.

5) While environmentalism is a highly motivating belief that can encapsulate one’s entire life, just as a religion is, it is not religion. This is the same for beliefs like evolution or communism, or even republicanism. Any of these beliefs can be followed with religious zeal, but none of them would ever be religions.

6) Environmentalists is no more anarchistically extremist than any other groups. There is a minority of environmentalists who are bonkers, but the same goes for Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Conservatives, Liberals, Socialists, Capitalists, Scientists. There is practically no group that does not have its bitterly irrational protectionists. If any of these ideals took over a society it would bring collapse, but the idea is ludicrous for two reasons: firstly precisely because it would bring collapse, which would not be willingly self-enforced by an educated population; and secondly because the generally democratic stability of the West currently makes such anarchy impossible.

To address your conclusion, I don’t support extremism of any kind. For this reason I think it is important for both skeptics and advocates to refrain from belligerence towards opposing parties. Advocates should keep from profiling all skeptics as wild crazies just as all skeptics should keep from profiling all advocates as wild crazies.

You are right about sentimental gestures. They frequently seem nothing more than a demonstration of good intentions to reassure the public of their lethargy and the politicians of their jobs.

Finally I don’t understand the significance of the European comment.