Petition seeks to reverse new fishing ban in Columbia River at Revelstoke

A petition asking for a reversal of changes to fishing regulations in the Columbia River at Revelstoke has gathered more than 250 signatures and was presented in the B.C. Legislature in Victoria in late May.

Revelstoke resident Tony Morabito started the petition after getting upset with rule changes that took effect in April.

Prior to April, fishing from the shore was banned from the Revelstoke Dam to the Trans-Canada Highway bridge. The new rules extended the ban southwards to the large hydro power lines that cross the Columbia River by the Downie Timber sawmill. In effect, shoreline fishing is newly prohibited in Centennial Park, the Big Eddy and downtown Revelstoke. Rules also raised catch sizes for bull trout to 60 centimetres and up, and placed a new seasonal whitefish fishing ban on the Illecillewaet River, to coincide with bull trout spawning on that river. (See this previous Revelstoke Mountaineer story for more details.)

The rule changes were supported by the Revelstoke Rod & Gun Club (see our audio interview with president Gary Krestinsky in this link) and the North Columbia Environmental Society (The NCES presented their reasons in this blog post). wh cited conservation as the main reason. There are two main arguments.

The first is that section of the Columbia should be regulated like a river, not a lake. They argued the old rules made it too easy to pull fish from the river during certain seasons, when the fish are crowded into small pools due to fluctuations in water releases at the Revelstoke Dam.

The second main argument is a proliferation of poaching and illegal fishing brought on by lack of enforcement of the rules.

Morabito is opposed to the ban for several reasons.

“I think the Rod & Gun Club is wrong on this,” Morabito told the Revelstoke Mountaineer in an interview. “[And] the North Columbia Environmental Society, they just want to close everything.”

Most upsetting to Morabito is the rule changes effectively cut off accessible recreational fishing to many in the community, including children or those with mobility issues.

“There are seniors who don’t have access to a boat and they can’t fish. We don’t have a darn boat launch,” he said, pointing to the state of disrepair at the existing launch in Centennial Park.

Morabito said the new restrictions aren’t supported by any scientific study that he’s aware of, and that if conservation is the issue, a fishing ban is like treating the symptom, not curing the disease.

“The whole issue here is fish habitat degradation,” Morabito said, citing reservoir and hydroelectric operations as the key. He called for more support like fish stocking, fertilization programs and rules enforcement.

Morabito agreed poaching does take place, but said it happens on the shoreline and in boats, and banning shore fishing unfairly targets only one segment of the community. He said it targets people based on socio-economic status — those who don’t have access to a boat. Although some people do fish from boats in the area in question, it’s not heavily used because boaters prefer calmer waters and better fishing to the south towards Shelter Bay.

Morabito has received a government response to letters of complaint he’s sent. A letter from Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Regional Executive Director Paul Rasmussen said there are sound scientific reasons for the changes, which were called for by conservation groups.

Rasmussen said the Illecillewaet River is a major bull trout producer that accounts for over half of the spawning population in the Arrow Lakes reservoir. He said bull trout spawning monitoring indicated a decrease in bull trout spawning in four of the last eight years.

“Scientifically, it is know that bull trout populations are easily susceptible to angling overharvest,” Rasmussen writes. “These regulations were put in place, recognizing the importance of this river reach for bull trout, and to address concerns that an increase in bull trout harvest has recently occurred.”

Morabito said he intends to keep on pushing the issue, searching for ways to reopen the river to shoreline fishing in Revelstoke.

“They’ve got to come up with a solution,” he said. “[The fishery has] been underfunded since the dams went in.”

Columbia River–Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald presented the petition in the B.C. Legislature on May 26.