Great Bears Missing From Great Bear Rainforest This Year - But Trophy Hunt Scheduled for 9/10 - ENS

[hatrack]

BELLA BELLA, British Columbia, Canada, September 9, 2009 (ENS) - It's called the Great Bear Rainforest, but few grizzly bears have been seen on British Columbia's north and central coast this year. Conservationists and bear viewing guides are blaming the disappearance of the bears on the overfishing of salmon, their main food source. "I have not observed a single mother and cub-of-the-year in our traditional territory," said Douglas Neasloss, a bear viewing guide of the Kitasoo-Xaixais First Nation on the central coast. "We are extremely concerned about the status of our bears right now."

According to records kept by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, the British Columbia north coast has experienced four years of extremely low chum salmon returns. Chum are the mainstay salmon species for grizzlies because they have a high fat content, last a long time in the fresh water environment and are large in size.

"DFO has once again ignored conservation concerns and permitted overfishing in Area 6 on the B.C. North Coast," said Ian McAllister of the BC-based wildlife conservation group, Pacific Wild. "The Gil Island fishery should have ensured that more salmon passed through to spawning grounds. Instead, over six million pink salmon were intercepted by nets, in addition to tens of thousands of sockeye, chum and coho during the last openings," said McAllister. "The few bears surviving this past winter really needed those fish."

In a statement Tuesday, the conservationists, guides and First Nations urged the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to cancel the September 10 opening of the fall grizzly bear trophy hunt and close all chum salmon fisheries that affect salmon on the central and northern British Columbia coast.

EDIT

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2009/2009-09-09-01.asp

[glinda]

1. I would like to know if these "hunters' are doomsday Christians. There is no logic in their actions

and in fact, quite the opposite as they seem to aggressive in attacking near extinct species.

[pscot]

2. If there's one left

some great hunter will kill it for the bragging rights. "See that head? That was the last one, and I nailed him."

[Dead_Parrot]

4. With the last salmon next to it, no doubt.

:grr:

[joshcryer]

3. Fuck these assholes who need a macho trip.

Note: I grew up poor and a 10 cent bullet and a day in the woods could feed our family of six for months. But this still irritates me *almost* as much as the gray wolf hunt. These people are basically assholes.

The overfishing ain't helping either. :(

[pscot]

5. The Chum salmon fishery

is now the biggest commercial fishery in Puget Sound. Kings and Coho have been reduced to struggling remnants. It's not clear what the Chum are used for, since no-one eats them. Maybe they're turned into catfood, or ground up to feed pen raised fish.