They say a fishing rod is really just a long pole with a hook on one end and an
idiot on the other and I don't think if it matters if that hook you know has
some feather or fluff tied to it or you know just a big metal spoon. We're all
out there for the same reasons and that's to connect with the environment
by pursuing these elusive fish. If there's a study from the 70s from DFO that
says this area shouldn't be developed I can't imagine what's changed in the
last 40 years in that situation we're all of a sudden it's a good idea. We have
the Port-au-Prince Rupert courting the LNG industry to put an LNG facility there.
If they were trying to find a worse the worst possible site to put it in terms
of impacts of salmon and other species they they found it. This area is only the
most area with wild salmon and maybe in a couple years you have no wild salmon there.
I'm in the business of hope. If I don't have hope then I don't have anything.
One of the great things about being an angler is it gives you a perspective you
know from knee-deep in the river and you wouldn't typically find yourself in
that situation unless you were fishing and it's perhaps it's part primal
being out there in the pursuit of something but I think it probably has
a lot to do with just slowing things down and whatever you do in a day-to-day
life when you're out there in the river and you're trying to hopefully have a
fish bite your line you're just kind of out there being it just slows things
down for you so I think it's that's its big redeeming quality as a pastime is
it just gives you a sense of calm over time. I met Dieter and Ushi about a year
and a half ago when we first had the idea to take over this property. Over time
I've really become incredibly fond of them they've really created this culture
of welcome us around the property where everyone's here to fish and it really is
just like one big extended family and for us you know taking over the lodge in
October but them letting us live here since early July it really I think
entrenched in us the family values that have built this place. Every dream from
the fishermen is to catch a big salmon in Canada when you talk in Germany over
fishing in Canada this is a dream from every fisherman. Canada is paradise for
fishing and that's why they say to me and then I catch this big fish and after
then I sit down maybe I'm going like crazy and after then I go back to
Germany every time my dream was Canada, Canada, Canada and then I sell my house
my business the first thing one look for nice property was not so far from
town close to the water and in the bush and I found this property there and this
was perfect. 25 years every year four months every day eight hours on the
water my whole life was good. You know going through those those albums with
the rubies it's and you know being in this place while you're doing it and
it's almost like the ghosts of the past you really kind of are taken back to you
know 32 guests everybody's caught their limit I mean it's a pretty happy place
at that time you sort of start looking at the bigger picture and you realize
that for these opportunities to continue we need to be stewards of the
resource. To me you're not going to stop all development I personally don't want
to stop all development but I think it what makes sense is common sense and
you have to pick the development that is the least disruptive and you know the
stuff that benefits the community as a whole. What I love about Skeena Wild as
an organization and in particular Greg and Julia is their common sense approach
to development they recognize that people depend on the Skeena to make
their living and they really have done a fantastic job of helping the community
to to be educated on you know the issues when it comes to overharvest and in
particular oil and gas development. There's a Look Fight Natural Gas facility
proposed for the mouth of the Skeena on Lelu Island and that would be placed
right over top of the most critical salmon habitat we have here in the
Skeena. We estimate anywhere from 80 to 90% of the fish leaving the Skeena when
they're about this big in the spring passed through this specific area that's
proposed for development and that's a time when they're coming out of the
river they're really vulnerable they suffer their highest mortality rates
because they're transitioning from fresh water to salt water they're trying to
find new food avoid new predators deal with strong ocean currents those sorts
of things but the biggest concern is that they're gonna dredge up approximately
700,000 cubic meters of mud and sand and within this sediment lies a lot of toxins
because for over 60 years a decommissioned pulp mill in in Port Edward
there discharged dioxins, furans, phs and other highly toxic chemicals into the
sediment and it's buried about six inches under the surface but as soon as
you dredge that up and re-release it into the environment and doing it all at
once could have serious impacts on fish and other organisms and we've been
working with people from Simon Fraser University local First Nations and other
researchers who have been speaking out and expressing strong concerns around
this particular development there. What we're simply asking for is that they
find a more suitable site and we think that's a pretty fair thing to do. I've
been around the world and seen the worn out faces delete the colors one by one
and leave the worn out places. That lyric really rings true to me in terms of why
it's important to to carry out this work because it's still very colorful and
vibrant here. Whether it's direct or indirect everybody in this region has
some sort of a connection to wild salmon. We're so innovative as human beings
there's no good reason that we can't have jobs that are designed around our
values and the things that matter to us. The things that we need to survive clean
water and clean air are two of those things. My fear is that so much harm
can be done in a small period of time that we won't be able to undo it. There
is acceptable risk and there's unacceptable risk and what's being
proposed at the estuary of the Skiina River is unacceptable risk.
I've been coming up here to the Terrace area since 2007. The mountains are just
insane and at the time I didn't know it but the fishing is probably the best in
the world. I started out salmon fishing then like most fishermen you make the
transition into fly fishing just because it offers a little bit more of a
challenge. At the top of the ladder in my opinion is steelhead so I feel like
everyone who gets into fishing least in Canada especially in BC whatever you
start out doing it always kind of leads to the same sort of destination which is
steelheading on the fly and I think at the top you're catching steelhead on a
swung fly that you tied yourself. Yeah I mean I don't even have words it's just
it's awesome that's awesome. So you know I'm a little bit concerned about what the
next 10 years might look like what what the fishery is gonna look like when my
kids are old enough to run around with the fishing rod you got to have faith
that with every problem there's also a solution and I think there are a lot of
people out here who care and are not gonna let you know a few greedy people
destroy this for everyone.
