Atlantic salmon groups await word on hook-and-release rules

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is being pushed to decide soon on whether anglers can keep any salmon caught in Gulf of St. Lawrence rivers this year.

For the past two years,mandatory hookandrelease rules have been extended from large Atlantic salmon to includegrilse, the young salmon that have returnedafter onewinter at sea.

The river is in much better shape than it's been given credit for.- Jerry Doak, fly shop operator

The Atlantic salmon season opens April 15.

In 2015 and 2016, the federal department announced the release requirement just days before the season started.

"I think it's vitally imperative that DFO do this in a timely fashion," said JerryDoak, who operates a fly fishing shop inDoaktownon theMiramichiRiver.

With the season opening in seven weeks, lodges and others are trying to make plans and arrange bookings.

"They've simply been avoiding it and postponing it and leaving it to the11thhour,"Doaksaid.

Sees better numbers

Doakhas been a leader in an effort to allow anglers to keepgrilsein certain areas where the number of salmon returns are higher.

"The river is in much better shape than it's been given credit for," he said. "They've been lumped into one general blanket policy, and I don't believe the river is wellserved by that."

"The release ofgrilseis not something that is warranted biologically, especially on the main SouthwestMiramichi, where the vast majority, 92 percent, of ourgrilseare male."

Earlier this month the New Brunswick Wildlife Federation also called for the reintroduction of salmon tags forgrilse,claiming anglers have been "staying away from the rivers in droves" since the mandatory hookandrelease order was put in place.

Not healthy enough for tags

The Atlantic Salmon Federation and other conservation groups want Fisheries and Oceans to maintain mandatory hookandrelease rules, at least for the 2017 season.

New Brunswick program director Nathan Wilbur said that overall counts of returning salmon are simply too low to bring back the tag system, which allowed anglers to keep a certain number of fish.

"For the most part the rivers are below their conservation requirements for salmon and have been for quite some time," said Wilbur. "We believe we're not quite there yet to allow tags to come back for the 2017 season."

The federation is pushing for riverbyriver management by Fisheries and Oceans,soadult returns would be more accurately counted and a plan would be put in place to determine what each river neededto have a sustainable salmon run.

The riverbyrivermanagement proposal has support from all sides.

Miramichi suffers

JerryDoakraised the issue last May,when he addressed Parliament's standing committee on fisheries and oceans.

"TheMiramichiis not wellserved by a management strategy which lumps all rivers together under a blanket policy,"Doaksaid.

"It needs and deserves a more targeted approach, tailored to its particular set of unique characteristics."

A federal Fisheries spokesperson could not be reached Wednesday for comment.