Government adopts catch-and-release policy at fishing lodge

A No Kill Article taken (Catch & Release) From the Telegraph Journal By MARTY KLINKENBERG


(Published Thursday November 26th, 2009)

FREDERICTON - Prominent visitors will have to release any salmon they catch from now on while fishing out of Larry's Gulch.

The government-owned lodge on the Restigouche River officially adopted a live-release policy on Wednesday to help preserve wild salmon.

"A lot of New Brunswick's rivers teemed with salmon in the past - the Big Salmon River once had huge runs - but today they have become very sparse," Tourism and Parks Minister Stuart Jamieson said after announcing the measure in the legislature. "Conservation is the way to go.

"If we don't conserve what we have, the future would be grim."
The lodge has been long used by New Brunswick governments to entertain celebrities and the political elite.

Purchased by the province for $22,000 in 1974, Larry's Gulch has played host to former President George H.W. Bush and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, among others.

Currently valued at well over $1 million, it sits on an eight-kilometre stretch of the Restigouche near Kedgwick.

It costs the government $12,000 to host 16 guests at the cedar-shingle lodge for two days, and is also rented to private groups for as much as $26,000, depending on the summer week.

Mark Ramsay, the manager at Larry's Gulch since 2005, said no clients have cancelled bookings next year because they won't be able to keep salmon, which are featured in the province's coat of arms in the legislative chambers.
"The response that we have received has been very positive," said Ramsay, who attended the announcement along with Atlantic Salmon Federation regional director Geoff Giffin and New Brunswick Salmon Council President Tom Benjamin.

"About five per cent of the people that come want to keep salmon and they are coming back again next year anyway."

Ramsay said he has agrees with the policy, and has been a proponent of it for years.

"I've always said that, after seeing an Atlantic salmon swimming in a pool, I hate to see one in the bottom of a boat," Ramsay said.
Giffin said measures to help save the Atlantic salmon population are extremely important.

In the mid-1970s, there were nearly two million returning to rivers in North American rivers, but now there are an estimated 600,000.

"By doing this at Larry's Gulch, the government is making a strong statement about conservation," Giffin said.

"It's an example to everyone, and reminds them that it is better to let the fish that you catch go on their way."

Benjamin likewise lauded the move.
"I strongly applaud this announcement," he said.

"When it comes to conservation, everyone has a role to play."

Jamieson said fishermen who want to take an Atlantic salmon home to eat will still be able to do so.

Larry's Gulch will send them home with a farm-raised one instead of their trophy catch.


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