I was ask to post this.

We've entered a critical time. We have DFO's attention, however we have no indication that they will respond to our concerns. Despite our efforts, the chum fishery went ahead yesterday, and DFO is considering additional openings. We now need to increase the pressure to make certain that they think long and hard before going ahead with another gillnet fishery in the Fraser.

Over the past 48 hours hundreds, perhaps thousands, of phone calls and emails from around the world have arrived at DFO offices in Vancouver. We need to make sure that thousands more arrive in Ottawa cc'd to Vancouver so that the Canadian government and DFO know that the world is watching.

I implore you to act quickly. This great race of steelhead--an international treasure--is at the mercy of a few short sighted bureaucrats who don't seem to listen when we address them directly. We must now go straight to the top and yell loud and long until we are heard.

What follows is a sample email you could send to The Honourable Geoff Regan, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, to make your feelings known:

Dear Minister Regan,

I was alarmed to learn that Fisheries and Oceans Canada went ahead with a commercial opening for chum salmon in the Fraser River on Wednesday October 20th, 2004. Conservation groups, Provincial officials, and the international angling community expressed their grave concerns about the impact this opening would have upon endangered Thompson River steelhead and demanded that the fishery be suspended, yet despite this outcry your staff in Vancouver refused to act to protect this threatened fish species.

I understand that Fisheries and Oceans is considering additional chum salmon openings in the coming weeks. The Government of Canada must intervene. The Minister must order an immediate halt to all commercial fisheries in the Fraser River and other Thompson River steelhead approach areas; further, the Minister must order a full public review of the Pacific salmon fishery's impact upon wild steelhead populations.

email addresses:

send an email to The Honourable Geoff Regan at: Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

cc the following:

Canadian Government

Prime Minister Paul Martin: pm@pm.gc.ca
Minister of the Environment Stephane Dion: Dion.S@parl.gc.ca
David Anderson MP: Anderson.D@parl.gc.ca

the Opposition

Stephen Harper
Leader of the Opposition
Harper.S@parl.gc.ca

Loyola Hearn
Fisheries and Oceans Canada – Critic
Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca

John Cummins
Assistant Fisheries Critic
Cummins.J@parl.gc.ca

Robert Mills
Environment Critic
Mills.R@parl.gc.ca

John Reynolds
Reynolds.J@parl.gc.ca

Jack Layton
Leader of the New Democratic Party
Layton.J@parl.gc.ca

DFO Vancouver Staff

Paul MacGillivray macgillivrayp@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Devona Adams adamsd@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

British Columbia Provincial Officials

Premier Gordon Campbell premier@gov.bc.ca

Bill Barisoff, Minster of Water Land and Air Protection bill.barisoff.mla@leg.bc.ca

also please cc to me at blacksalmon@shaw.ca

please distribute this information widely, posting it on other websites or forwarding it on to anyone you believe could help. We need many voices so that the Canadian government knows that the world will not sit idle while they net Thompson steelhead into extinction.