I'm shocked with this! On so many levels! My sympathies with the OP and others who have been confronted with what was overwhelming heavy-handedness and unnecessary overreach on the part of the Canadian Authorities.
Soin2la, in particular please take note:
Permit me to provide the forum with my "Bonafides" as pertaining to Salmon Management and Orcas over the past 35 some-odd years and my professional interactions with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. Since 1986 I was a Management Biologist employed with the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC), retiring in 2013. Prior to that I was a biologist with the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission (IPSFC), 1978-1985. These are International Salmon Management Agencies, the involved Parties being Canada and the United States of America. I was a Quantitative Biologist and was "Head, Stock Monitoring" on retirement. I interacted directly with Biologists, managers and representatives with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, First Nations, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC), Washington Department of Fish and Game (WDFW), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
My first job with the IPSFC was as an observer on a gillnet test fishing vessel in 1978, operating in Washington Statistical Area 7 off San Juan and Lopez islands. It was a dream job for a 21-year-old, fresh out of university. Needless to say, we encountered Orcas on numerous occasions, particularly off San Juan Point and Eagle Point. From that experience, I am certain that Southern Resident Orcas most definitely eat sockeye and pink salmon. To contend that Orcas, feeding in situations where several hundred thousand sockeye and pinks are swimming by, single out only Chinook to the exclusion of everything else is plain hubris and frankly just bad biology!
I oversaw the Test Fisheries for the PSC, and we developed programs in Canadian Stat Area 29 on the sockeye salmon that delay in that area. On some years, north of 6,000,000 sockeye were situated just off the drop¬-off of the Fraser River. Again, the Whale Biologists would have you believe, that the Orcas I saw magically appear at high slack water off Sandheads
WERE NOT EATING THE ZILLIONS OF SOCKEYE AVAILABLE, BLACKING OUT THE SOUNDER, BUT SINGLING OUT INSTEAD THE LONE CHINOOK! Hmmm!
In 2007, the Test Fishing Program operated a research project aimed at using Weak Electric Fields to deter the predation by seals on salmon caught in gillnets in freshwater. The research was ground breaking and unequivocal: Seals would avoid a gillnet that had a weak electric field deployed. This work was published in the peer-reviewed North American Journal of Fisheries Management “Evaluation of an Electrical Gradient to Deter Seal Predation on Salmon caught in Gillnet Test Fisheries.”
My point with this is, our team had experience with studies on marine mammals and their interaction with salmon.
In 2007 we attended a Workshop at NMFS in Seattle on Orcas. At the time I was stunned with just how little Orca biologists knew about the salmon biology and the interactions between whales and fish. And also, just how little they were willing to learn from salmon biologists who had first-hand knowledge of the feeding behaviour of whales on salmon—in my own particular experience, southern residents and Fraser River sockeye and pink salmon. The killer whale biologists had undertaken “zero” sampling off the Fraser River of whale poop for the indication of sockeye in “said poop”.
My point with the above diatribe? I’m sorry, but my experience with DFO has not been always the best. Some individuals I have worked with have been brilliant and great to work with. But others, not so much. And as an Agency, it is burdened with incompetency and mismanagement. It is a high-handed agency that hides behind policy that is over-reaching and draconian and lacking in adequate research. People on the water are having to contend with “a thousand cuts” of restrictive policies that are becoming nearly impossible to navigate.
On the issue of Restricted Zones, quite frankly the authorized agencies in Canada already have the “tools” required to enforce vessel/whale interactions with regulations pertaining to and I quote:
“…The Marine Mammal Regulations remain in effect year-round. This requires staying:
200 metres away from all killer whales in Canadian Pacific waters other than those described above
200 metres away from all whales, porpoises and dolphins when in resting position or with a calf
100 metres for other whales, porpoises and dolphins…”
https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp...s-baleines/srkw-measures-mesures-ers-eng.html
Anything further was just unnecessary.
Instead, they put this particular restricted area off Saturna Island, that squeezes recreational mariners between the proverbial “Rock” (the Restricted Zone) and a “Hard Place”, the very busy pinch point for commercial vessels, the Vessel Traffic System.
I have transited this area numerous times and during specific tides and weather it is a tricky area to transit, particularly East Point and Boiling Reef. To restrict a Captain’s ability to navigate their vessel to ensure safe passage is negligence on the part of the Agency responsible: That being Transport Canada.
Furthermore, time and again I have contacted DFO and CHS pertaining to the need for add-ons to the charts, both their own as well as making this available third parties (Nobeltech, Navionics, etc) for download overlays for restricted areas, fishing boundaries, sponge reefs, RCA’s, First Nations exclusion areas, to name just a few. Why in this day and age of Charting Software, this is not available is inconceivable, and in fact bordering on gross neglect by these agencies. Even the Fishery Officers have to put this into their Charting software. Ridiculous!
Let me reiterate: The letter sent to the OP was completely unnecessary!
Rant Mode Off!
Time for another letter to the Ministers of Transport Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans!
Jim