Nets set in Colpoy's Bay

[Spiel]

Nets set in Colpoy's Bay

RESOURCES: MNR says matter addressed with chief, nets are to be pulled

 

 

March 2, 2010

SCOTT DUNN / SUN TIMES

 

 

Native commercial fishermen have set gill nets in Colpoy's Bay, where rainbow trout are staging for spring spawning runs, the president of a local sportsmen's club said Monday.

 

David Leggatt, president of the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen's Association, said the fishing is being done after an agreement that forbade commercial fishing in the bay expired.

 

"They've been out there about two weeks now," said Leggatt, who said he had just returned from a boat trip to see the fishing with someone from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

 

"There is actually technically no agreement because the old one expired," said Leggatt, who said the fishing is being done by Cape Croker commercial fishermen.

 

Reached late in the day, Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement supervisor Robert Gibson requested written questions before responding.

 

Eleven questions were posed and one answer was provided by MNR spokesman John Cooper, who read a statement Monday.

 

"The answer it has here is, the matter has been addressed with the chief, who advised us that the activity of setting those nets was not sanctioned by the band and the nets would be removed by tomorrow."

 

He said he couldn't respond to any other questions.

 

Cape Croker Chief Ralph Akiwenzie was on the telephone both times The Sun Times called Monday afternoon, someone in the band office said. He hadn't called back by the the end of the day.

 

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MP Larry Miller said he called the MNR to report the fishing after a number of people notified him Monday.

 

He said the MNR official told him "they've just been inundated since early this morning" with calls on the issue.

 

If the fishing agreement kept native commercial nets out of Colpoy's Bay and now they're fishing there, Miller said, "they're not doing themselves any good by doing that."

 

Miller also said "if they are in violation I would expect charges will be laid and followed through. However, that hasn't been the history. In the past we know previous MNR employees had been told to turn a blind eye."

 

He was in the process of trying to reach MPP Bill Murdoch, his provincial counterpart, to discuss the situation Monday afternoon.

 

Murdoch is on vacation but is aware of the situation and understood the nets would be removed by today, his assistant Ana Sajfert said.

 

The Bruce Peninsula club stocks the bay with rainbow and brown trout and "Colpoy's Creek is a big spawning area."

 

Leggatt said he's concerned about gill net fishing damaging fish stocks and harming local fishing prospects and tourism.

 

The commercial fishermen have objected to stocking in the past.

 

"If they're not trying to catch them, they're sure in the prime area for them staging right now," Leggatt said.

 

He said whitefish and lake trout are the only fish commercial fishermen are supposed to fish commercially. Leggatt also questioned why no charges have been laid.

 

Leggatt, a clergyman, has been a member of the sportsmen's club since he moved to Wiarton 6 1/2 years ago to preside over a local parish.

 

In 1993, Ontario provincial court Judge J. Fairgrieve acquitted two Chippewas of Nawash First Nation commercial fishermen of violating provincial fishery regulations.

 

The ruling confirmed the Saugeen Ojibwa's constitutional aboriginal right to fish commercially in their traditional waters from Goderich in Lake Huron to southern Georgian Bay.

 

This priority right to fish was recognized after conservation issues were satisfied.

 

The ruling led to hostilities between native and non-native fishing proponents. Ultimately, fishing agreements were signed in 2000 and 2005, which were never fully made public.

 

In Aug. 2008, native commercial fishermen left their gill nets in Big Bay past an Aug. 1 deadline to remove them. They were quickly removed when Chief Akiwenzie ordered it.

 

The MNR had already removed one gill net from Colpoy's Bay earlier that week. At the time, the MNR called the violation of the agreement a "blip."

 

The issue was brought to light after MP Larry Miller issued a news release criticizing the placement of the gill nets, a move made in response to what he said was dozens of com-plaints to his office.

 

The commercial fishing agreement with the Saugeen Ojibwa -- which included members of both the Saugeen First Nation and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation -- allowed native gill net fishing up to the mouths of Owen Sound and Colpoy's Bay.

 

In August the lines moved back as far as White Cloud and Griffith islands and across to Vail's Point so as not to interfere with fishing derbies. The agreement also permitted native commercial fishing as far east as Craigleith on Georgian Bay and south to Point Clarke on Lake Huron.

 

In October 2008, Donna Cansfield, then the Minister of Natura

 

l Resources, promised the Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen's Association a say in the next native commercial fishing agreement.

 

Brampton Springdale MPP Linda Jeffrey became the new natural resources minister in January.

[12footspringbok]

Unbelieveable!

[Twocoda]

the whole agreement is a "blip" of outstanding proportions....