![['Vast and beautiful, the Exploits River has been a popular location for salmon anglers for decades. But this year’s abnormally high temperatures have been causing problems for the cold-water Atlantic salmon that inhabit it’s waters.']](https://saltwire.imgix.net/in-hot-water-2141347.jpg?cs=srgb&fit=crop&h=568&w=847&dpr=1&auto=compress%2Cenhance%2Cformat)
Neville Crabbe’s letter to The Telegram of Feb. 13, titled “Johnny-come-lately on wild salmon” — written on behalf of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) — smacks of arrogance and disrespect. Isn’t it time the government of Newfoundland and Labrador showed this organization the door?
Who can blame the government of N.L. for staying away from DFO’s recent Salmon Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings when DFO allows the ASF to stack that committee with ASF affiliates? Consequently, the ASF controls every decision that is made by the SAC. The result is a public salmon angling resource controlled by a come-from-away organization funded primarily by donations from rich American angling interests.
In Mr. Crabbe’s letter, he has one statement right, in that Canadian law does say that no one has a right to kill fish if conservation priorities are not being met. Given that the catch and release of wild salmon has been scientifically proven to result in various levels of mortality, the ASF, in my opinion, is already complicit in breaking this law in that the ASF lobby of DFO last summer resulted in Newfoundland rivers remaining open to catch and release at a time when conservation priorities were not being met.
As Newfoundlanders living here in this province, Mr. Crabbe, perhaps we do have a right to criticize our own politicians and our own provincial government, but we do not take kindly to outsiders — particularly organizations like the one you work for, with its roots in the United States of America — doing some of the same.
Jed Sampson
Port au Port
