Tag Archives: chinook fishery off Haida Gwaii

Commercial salmon fishers reeling from sweeping closures

Fourth-generation fisherman Jordan Belveal of Nanaimo was ready to head north on his boat Blue Bayou to catch coho July 1 in Dixon Entrance, between B.C. and Alaska, when he heard about the widespread closures. Although he says he doesn’t mind keeping his boat tied to the dock if it means preserving some runs, Belveal opposed the closures, saying some fisheries with a good abundance of salmon have been cancelled. Losing the  coho fishery has had a “major effect on us,” said Belveal, who operates Island Wild ­Seafoods with wife Catlin, selling hook-and-line caught ­sustainable wild seafood to Vancouver Island ­customers. Belveal is now counting on the Aug. 12 chinook fishery off Haida Gwaii, which would normally have opened in June but was delayed to allow fish to head to their home rivers on Vancouver Island and to the Fraser River, >click to read< 09:56