Limits and losses

Outfitters in western Newfoundland say salmon regulations are resulting in cancellations

Contending with regulations that severely limit salmon angling in the province is going to have a negative impact on businesses that cater to salmon anglers, some outfitters say.

This year the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set the retention limit to one fish per licence, with a three-fish per day limit for catch and release. On top of that the provincial Department of Fisheries and Land Resources has implemented a hook-and-release limit of 10 salmon per licence.

Both regulations are to cover the fishery up to a mid-season review in July.

“How do you operate in that?” Barb Genge, owner of the Tuckamore Lodge in Main Brook on the Northern Peninsula, asked on Thursday.

“I can’t operate in that and how can anybody else, because you’re always in violation of the law.”

Genge said the limits on catch-and-release angling will have a big impact on the business she’s run for 32 years and she’s already seeing cancellations.

She’s also going to have to cancel some reservations herself due to the uncertainty of what will happen after the review in July.

The cancellations mean she’ll have to give back deposits that have been made by customers.

Not only does she stand to lose out on bookings to her lodge, but she’s also spent a lot of money on marketing that now may not bring in a return.

“No matter which way you look we’re out money and people are out of jobs. And if that’s the way forward for the Newfoundland government for Newfoundlanders, listen, their way forward I don’t want to be a part of it,” she said.

Genge said she’s got her guides coming to her asking when they’ll start work and she can’t answer them. And she figures she’s going to have no choice but to reduce her staff.

“You can’t have guiding people with no people to guide.”

Fred Thorne also thinks the regulations will have a negative impact on his operation as he’s already seeing that bookings are down.

Thorne is the owner of the Humber Lodge in Big Falls and has other ventures in the central area of the province.

He said his concerns could fill the newspaper and he’s shared them in writing the Fisheries and Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne, Premier Dwight Ball and Environment Minister Andrew Parsons.

“It’s a one-sided decision made by Mr. Byrne that obviously impacts all of us in the outfitting industry that caters to non-resident salmon fishermen, even resident salmon fishermen.”

He has people who come in to fish and after catching their limits continue to fish catch and release. They do it for the enjoyment of salmon fishing, but he doesn’t see that happening with the restrictive limits this year.

“If they’re going to come over here and spend all that money and they can hit a couple of good days fishing and their quotas is met, why are they going to book for a week?” he asked.

“They’re not coming here to sit in the lodge. They’re coming here to fish.”

Thorne is a catch-and-release angler, but he’s not opposed to the catch and retain, and said that is another side of his business that will be affected by the one salmon retention limit. “That’s conservation,” he said. But, to him, the decision to limit catch and release is really unfair.

“Why would you come here and hook 10 fish and be finished for the season?”

The Newfoundland and Labrador Outfitters Association declined to comment on this story. President Ron Hicks said the association is trying to arrange a meeting with Byrne and wanted to talk to him before commenting publicly.