For the love of the salmon

Charles Cusson, master of ceremonies and director, ASF Quebec Programs
Charles Cusson, master of ceremonies and
director, ASF Quebec Programs

Atlantic salmon have benefactors in Ottawa. Deputy Minister of Fisheries Matt King, MPs, diplomats, fishers, business people and civil servants turned out to support these iconic creatures that swim 3,000 kilometres from northern Europe to spawn in the rivers of their birth in Eastern Canada and the U.S.

Jim and Judy Hands of Hands Auction in Perth
Jim and Judy Hands of Hands Auction in Perth

The 250 people who attended the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) 18th Annual Fall Run Conservation Dinner and Auction at the Museum of History were treated to a lively evening that raised $75,000 for salmon conservation. They bid on donated allexpense-paid trips, fishing gear, restaurant and spa vouchers, jewelry, clothes, spirits
and art.

Dawson Hovey, ASF Dinner Chairman, and his wife, Jocelyn
Dawson Hovey, ASF Dinner Chairman, and his
wife, Jocelyn

It was a festive night — complete with music by Duelling Pianos of Ottawa — for a serious cause. The salmon need help, and fast: As their numbers plummet, with most of Canada’s Atlantic salmon rivers down 30 to 50 percent from last year — itself not a great one — so goes the $150 million fishery. And with it, go some 10,000 good seasonal and full-time jobs, ASF chairman and CEO Bill Taylor told attendees.

Bill Taylor, ASF President & CEO and ASF Dinner Committee, Velma McColl (left) and Fiona Gilfillan. (Photo: Caroline Phillips/ Ottawa Citizen. Reprinted by permission.)
Bill Taylor, ASF President & CEO and ASF
Dinner Committee, Velma McColl (left) and
Fiona Gilfillan. (Photo: Caroline Phillips/
Ottawa Citizen. Reprinted by permission.)

Mr. Taylor talked salmon with Fisheries Deputy Minister Matt King, who sat beside him throughout the dinner. On his other side was Manitoba MP Robert Sopuck, an inland salmon expert. Mr. Taylor told the crowd that ASF and the Department of Fisheries are not adversaries. The time for study is over, though, he said, and for Fisheries to execute its 2009 salmon policy paper. (Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, who was to attend, had to fly to Nova Scotia.) The department lacks funds to manage

Axel Oskarsson; Barbara Crook, wife of Dan Greenberg; Conservative Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre and Dan Greenberg
Axel Oskarsson; Barbara Crook, wife of Dan Greenberg; Conservative
Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre and Dan Greenberg

the salmon fishery, he added, with budgets at half the $25 million of the mid-’80s.
Catches are too large: “Last year, anglers and First Nations fishermen in Eastern Canada killed 136 tonnes of Atlantic salmon. Greenland fishermen killed another 47 tonnes, or 14,000 salmon, more than 80 percent of Canadian origin and all large spawners,” Mr. Taylor said.

Donna Jacobs, publisher of Diplomat, ASF Dinner Committee; Cindy Sezlik; Axel Oskarsson, CEO, I am Iceland (tourism and outdoors guiding company www.iamiceland.is); Dan Greenberg, honorary ASF Dinner Chairman
Donna Jacobs, publisher of Diplomat, ASF Dinner Committee; Cindy
Sezlik; Axel Oskarsson, CEO, I am Iceland (tourism and outdoors
guiding company www.iamiceland.is); Dan Greenberg, honorary ASF
Dinner Chairman

He listed four fast-effect solutions: no harvest of populations with low spawning rates; no harvest of mixed stocks of migrating salmon at sea; release by anglers of all large salmon and grilse (salmon that spent one winter at sea); use by First Nations fishers of selective gear, release of all large spawners and banning of gill nets for salmon.

Greg Brandt, Erin Filiter’s husband; Saudi Arabia Ambassador Naif Bin Bandir Alsudairy; Erin Filliter, ASF Dinner Committee
Greg Brandt, Erin Filiter’s husband; Saudi Arabia Ambassador Naif Bin
Bandir Alsudairy; Erin Filliter, ASF Dinner Committee

Of course, salmon was served that night. The appetiser buffet, with its mounds of smoked salmon, drew rave reviews. This salmon wasn’t from sea farms, which are made of floating pens where salmon are often treated with pesticides, antibiotics and sickened by sea-lice parasites and diseases that afflict the tightly penned fish and spread to healthy wild salmon.

Pierre Tipple (ASF Dinner Committee), Peter Rozanski, Ameer Razavi and Christina Ellis
Pierre Tipple (ASF Dinner Committee), Peter Rozanski, Ameer Razavi
and Christina Ellis

Rather, these salmon were land-raised by the Atlantic Salmon Federation and The Conservation Fund in closed-containment land facilities with fresh-pumped ocean water; Canada has three of the world’s 10 operations.

Irish Ambassador Raymond Bassett, his wife Patricia; Elín Jónsdóttir and her husband, Icelandic ambassador Sturla Sigurjónsson
Irish Ambassador Raymond Bassett, his wife Patricia; Elín Jónsdóttir and her husband, Icelandic
ambassador Sturla Sigurjónsson

Jim and Judy Hands of Hands Auction in Perth donated their services and auctioned fishing trips to Quebec’s Gaspé and Matapedia River, 12 Ottawa Senators tickets in a 200-level suite, a Macallan’s private scotch-tasting for 10 and a week in a Paris apartment.

Stephen Gallagher, ASF Dinner Committee
Stephen Gallagher, ASF Dinner
Committee

Two ambassadorial gifts drew high bidding. Portuguese Ambassador José Fernando and his wife, Maria de Lurdes Moreira da Cunha, donated a dinner for 10 at their residence, featuring Portugal’s famed cuisine.
Icelandic Ambassador Sturla Sigurjónsson and his wife, Elín Jónsdóttir, will serve 10 diners their country’s food and drink specialities. In addition, the embassy secured two round-trip tickets from Icelandair for a week-long fishing package with wellknown Icelandic fishing and tour guide Axel Oskarsson, CEO of I am Iceland (www. amiceland.is). Attending in his Viking helmet to boost the Icelandic-themed evening,
he donated two one-week guiding trips. The winners were his friends and fellow fishers, husband and wife, Dan Greenberg (honorary dinner chair) and Barbara Crook.
They vigorously bid against each other, to the delight of the crowd. And to the benefit of the salmon.
Donna Jacobs is publisher of Diplomat magazine.