NEWS  What is happening in our community.

Three projects in Newfoundland and Labrador receive ASCF funding for 2009

Three groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Newfoundland and Labrador will receive a total of $39,250 in funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) this year. Details on each of the projects are as follows:

Torngat Joint Fisheries Board, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador: $20,000
To encapsulate Labrador Inuit values, knowledge and use of wild Atlantic salmon in the past and present

The salmon fishery has provided Labrador Inuit with food for thousands of years, and remains an important cultural activity in the present day. It is one of the only remaining wild Atlantic salmon net fisheries in North America. The Torngat Joint Fisheries Board plans to produce a video to encapsulate Labrador Inuit's salmon fishery. This documentary will be filmed both through interviews with community elders, as well as on location during the subsistence harvest.

One of the major themes of the video is to investigate what biological factors have influenced Atlantic salmon populations in Nunatsiavut, in an attempt to identify patterns and changes over time. Another goal is to document changes in harvesting methods, gear modifications, and processing techniques.

The producers of this video expect that this project will strengthen and forge new relationships between the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board and others committed to the preservation and continued use of Atlantic salmon in Labrador. The documentary will provide a specific illustration of the social, cultural and spiritual importance of Atlantic salmon to the Labrador Inuit as well as highlight examples of the traditional Inuit knowledge linking salmon to Labrador Inuit culture. As such it will provide an important information source for educating young Nunatsiavut citizens to the importance of Atlantic salmon and will be an invaluable well as one repository of traditional knowledge accumulated over hundreds of years of salmon utilization.

Contact: Juliana Coffey, Fisheries Biologist, TJFB
Phone: 709-896-6780
E-mail: juliana.coffey@torngatsecretariat.ca

The Miawpukek First Nation, Conne River, Newfoundland: $16,250
For a radio telemetry investigation to enhance knowledge on the distribution and utilization of the three major tributaries that make-up the Conne River system

When a river has several main tributaries, do salmon prefer one tributary over the other for spawning, feeding and so on? That's one question the Miawpukek First Nation hopes to answer when it uses funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) to conduct a radio telemetry investigation of the main stem of the Conne River and two of its tributaries: Bernard's Brook and Twillick Brook. Some of the other questions the group hopes to answer include: Can areas of tributaries that aren't popular with salmon be improved so that the salmon will go there? How does the practice of "catch and release" affect salmon in the river? How many kelt go elsewhere for the winter and how many stay in the river? And so on.

Not only does the MFN hope to answer these questions - and more like them - but another of this project is the experience MFN personnel will gain in the set-up, operation and use of the automated telemetry stations.

Contact: Ross Hinks, Director of Natural Resources, Miawpukek First Nation
Phone: 709-753-4968
E-mail: rhinks@mfngov.ca

Salmonid Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's: $3,000
To purchase new chiller units for the Fish Friends Education Program in NL

The Salmonid Council of Newfoundland and Labrador would like to see every child in the province calling themselves a "Fish Friend." The Fish Friends Program, which is offered in schools at the grade 4 to 6 levels, aims to provide young students with an understanding of salmon and trout stocks in their area. The hope is that the program will help shape children's attitudes and make them more responsible decision makers when they become adults.

To continue this program the Council needs to replace some of the equipment it's been using since, as the kids put it, "back in the day." The Council will use its ASCF funding to purchase a new chiller incubation unit so that the children of Newfoundland and Labrador will have many, many little fish to befriend in the future!

Contact: Donald Hustins, President
Phone: 709-753-2930
E-mail: donaldhustins@hotmail.com