Friday, August 24, 2010 Things don’t add up this year as popular Opry cancelled.
Page 15
ary Annivers 1985-2010
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Fishing
Courts
It’s been called the best Fraser River run in nearly a century, but those who fish the river only have a small window to reap the harvest. Reporter Scott McKenzie went out on a boat Wednesday and witnessed the frantic work.
by Jeremy Shepherd
Time’s short when fish biting
B
.C. is now reaping the biggest sockeye salmon return in nearly a century, just a year after one of the smallest returns on record. That’s why Phil Eidsvik, along with his 18-year-old daughter Andrea and colleague Glen Budden were out fishing sockeye on the Fraser River Wednesday for 32 straight hours. Fisheries officials estimated Tuesday that more than 25 million sockeye will return to the Fraser River this year, the largest number since 1913. Last year’s number was 1.7 million. That estimate could yet go higher, said Barry Rosenberger, area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as Tuesday’s catch was the largest all year. The department has approved another set of openings for commercial fishing and expanded the fishery based on the record returns. Eidsvik said that he would previously be allowed to fish for three hours, which was moved up to five hours, and then to eight. Now he’s licensed for 32-hour days. The huge bounty is causing challenges for supplier and retailer 7 Seas, where they’re turning down fishermen due to a surplus of sockeye. “People have fish going rotten in their boats; it’s really bad,” said 7 Seas president George Heras. “The fish is overwhelming everyone right now because many people have left the business after so many bad years. Eidsvik, who is also the spokesperson for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, said that people are going to be stocking up their freezers because “it won’t be like this next year.” On Wednesday, Eidsvik’s boat drifted from close to the Port Haney Wharf to about 200 Street because it took so long to pick the salmon out of the net. Asked how much fish he would
Jail, house arrest for local senior found with child porn editorial@mrtimes.com
have caught a year ago, Eidsvik said that he’d be happy to catch 50. During the 32-hour fishing day, the three crew members took shifts sleeping in the ship’s only bed so they could keep up the pace. The Eidsviks are from Burnaby and didn’t want to head back at all, Andrea said, because the two-hour trip along the river would be a waste of time due to the amount of fish they could be catching. “This is the first year we’ve fished sockeye in four years, and we don’t expect to fish for the next three years,” said Phil. “You can fish all day and there’s still fish at the end. It’s good news.” Rosenberger said 10 million salmon have been accounted for so far, with 4.1 million caught and 5.9 million expected to spawn.
A Pitt Meadows man convicted of possession of child pornography will spend his next seven weekends in jail and a year under house arrest, according to a judge’s ruling last Wednesday. After pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography Ray Murray, 66, will serve the minimum mandatory sentence of 14 days in jail, served on weekends, followed by 34 months of probation. Murray will not be permitted to be alone with anyone under the age of 16. Murray also pleaded guilty to one charge of improper storage of a firearm, resulting in the judge’s decision to prohibit him from using or owning firearms for one year. Judge Shehni Dossa said she had reviewed a portion of the threeminute video taken from Murray’s computer, which she said included prepubescent females and adult males. “Images in this instance are at the lower end of the scale of depravity,” she said. Dossa said there were mitigating circumstances in this case, due to the fact Murray had no part in creating the material nor any intent to distribute child pornography. Judge Dossa also cited a psychiatric report that stated Murray’s remorse was genuine. Dossa said Murray, who is divorced and retired, is “somewhat isolated,” but said he was a very low risk to offend again. Metro police in London, England noted the IP address for Murray’s computer during a child pornography investigation last year and passed the information to the RCMP. According to RCMP Sergeant Bev Csikos, Murray visited a childabuse website hosted by an English company and clicked to download a free three-minute trailer for a child pornography movie.
See SALMON, Page 7
See PORN, Page 8
Andrea Eidsvik tosses another salmon into a bin as she works with her father Phil and Glen Budden Wednesday on the Fraser River near Maple Ridge. (Below) Budden gets bloody as he cuts up a salmon. Scott McKenzie/TIMES
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