GUARDIAN - Transcript

[00:00:02.01]
[seagull squawks]

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- This is the real world out here.

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Where you come from,
that's not the real world.

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This is it, this is
where it all comes from,

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this is where it all starts.

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You know?

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You can't build your cities
without this out here.

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[seagull squawking]

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[plaintive piano music]

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[winch whirring]

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[metal chain clanking]

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[boat motor rumbling]

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Bears, wolves.

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Birds, eagles.

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Even the trees.

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There isn't an animal
in the bush around here

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that doesn't somehow
relate back to salmon.

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[plaintive piano music]

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We're all out there trying
to do the same thing,

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and that's make this fishery last forever.

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The Great Bear Rainforest,
now that's a new name.

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We used to just call it the Central Coast.

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North Coast. [laughing]

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Well, that's from the north
end of Vancouver Island

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to the Alaska border to the
outside of the Charlottes.

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And I mean at one time
each statistical area

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had a government boat involved in it.

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Anyhow, they don't have that now.

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We're on our own on the salmon.

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Sophia to Surfbird, how
are you doing Hermann?

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- [Hermann] I'm doing pretty good.

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Where are you heading to?

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- [Doug] Oh, we're probably gonna end up

[00:03:04.02]
in Goat Harbor tonight.

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We just were up in town
for fuel and groceries,

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on our way back now.

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- [Hermann] Oh yeah, I'll hold it to you.

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Not too many fish around, is there?

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- [Doug] No, no, there's
not many fish around

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at all, Hermann.

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- [Hermann] Yeah, I actually
saw one chum jumping

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just below a low inlet
and that was it for me.

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- Oh, you did better than
me, all I'd seen was a whale.

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[boat motor rumbling]

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There's a bear.

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It's a grizzly and two cubs with her.

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Two yearlings.

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She's the one that's been
hanging around here all season.

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[breathing heavily]

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"Guardians" hasn't been used
for quite a few years now.

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They call us "Creekwalkers."

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[bird squawking]

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We do a little more than
just walk creeks, though.

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[bird squawking]

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[gentle piano music]

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They spawn among the rocks, and the eggs

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just go in down there into the crevices

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and that's where they lay and incubate.

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[tally counter clicking]

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[gentle piano music]

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Salmon is a timed fishery,
that's how you manage it,

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by how much fishing time they get.

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So, really you gotta keep
track of what they're catching,

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what you have left in the creeks,

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and make decisions whether
you're gonna continue fishing

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the next day or not.

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How do you manage that fishery

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if you don't know how much you got?

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There's a big commercial fishery on it.

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There's a big sports
commercial fishery on it.

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There's a sports fishery on it.

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A ceremonial food fishery on it.

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When the fish don't come
back, everybody knows it.

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[water splashing]

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This is where we usually
bump into the bear.

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He's usually in among the logs here.

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So they'd come out of the bush there,

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and run across the log and come in here.

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They're probably not very far away.

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And you can see they sort of
feathered all of the bark.

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That's their claws goin' in.

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And then they go up,
just up above the limb

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is about as far as they go.

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Yeah.

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There's a bear scat right there.

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A big berry dump.

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Should've been gray
colored from eating fish

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instead of blue colored
from eating berries.

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Yeah.

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I'm a little leery that
they'll start chasing him

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and I really don't want that to happen.

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Hey you, get back here.

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[water splashing]

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I always thought I had a
little bit of Davy Crockett

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or Daniel Boone in me.

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I always was curious about what
was around the next corner.

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Still am.

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And that's why I crawled into
the back end of these creeks

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looking for coho.

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I've hiked into the back of creeks

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where I was walking in snow to find fish.

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[water sloshing]

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[dog barks]

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Curiosity.

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That's basically what drives me, I guess.

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[dog barks]

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What am I gonna find?

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What's gonna be different this year?

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Probably about 50/50
on the pinks and chums.

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A few coho in the corner
over here, I don't see a lot.

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And I spotted one sockeye
in there somewhere.

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They're not really thick.

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They'd be piled up more
if there was really thick.

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It looks like just one
surface layer there.

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And if you don't think there's
enough fish around to supply

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the creeks, then you
shut the fishery down.

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A week-by-week decision on
whether you keep fishing

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or not fishing.

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[tally counter clicking]

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Oh, it's a tally whacker.

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That's chum.

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That's pinks.

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And a lot of times I'll carry a third one,

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and that's for the dead.

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So technically, if you
were doing pinks and chum

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you'd need four, but I use
four I get 'em all mixed up.

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I start counting on the wrong one.

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Wait till you see Stan, I
think he's got five of them.

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[water splashing]
[gentle piano music]

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- Well, if we're gonna continue
having commercial fisheries

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for salmon, these small
streams are very important.

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They're the ones that will
probably save us in the end

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when something catastrophic happens.

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These small ones will be
the savior of everything.

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If we don't have some idea of
what our salmon populations

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are in that stream, or even
our wildlife populations,

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how would we ever say that
there was any kind of an effect

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from manmade influences?

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[anchor chain scraping]

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6.9 degrees.

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44.4 on the Fahrenheit scale.

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So it's pretty cold.

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[dog whimpering and barking]

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OK, get in.

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[dog barking]

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[gentle orchestral music]

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It's a black bear.

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They strip the skin off.

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I just seen a fish jumped out there.

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Last week when I was here,
there was a black bear

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right out there underneath
the falls fishing for salmon.

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And when he smelled me,

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he ran right up the
waterfall, right on this side,

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and into the bushes.

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I just seen another fish jump.

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If you look down here,
you stare long enough

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you'll see fish jumping,
trying to jump the falls.

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They'll never make it.

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[waterfall splashing]

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I started last year writing up a thing,

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so I could get it clear in my head,

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like what this is all about,
what we're doing and stuff.

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And I was hoping that
someday I could actually go

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into the office and present this,

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or even send it to them in
writing to what goes on.

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More for the fact that they can say, well,

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"Oh, these guys are actually--
this is actually important."

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That's half of the day.

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165 chums.

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Only seen two pinks in the main river.

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And...

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I had a hundred and...

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[mumbling]

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And I walked...

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Two hundred and...

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My hands are too cold to hold a pen.

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And the cat come to check it out

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and make sure it was done properly.

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[cat meows]

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And then-- I'll avoid
it as long as I can--

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but on a rainy day,

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I take that and enter
it into the BC16 program

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on the computer.

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[water sloshing]
[tally counter clicking]

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- You don't actually go
in and count every salmon

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of course, in a creek.

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You count to a method that
you've picked up over years

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and you count to that method constantly.

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So if you're changing the person

[00:14:11.06]
that's going in and
counting it every time,

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their methodology's gonna be
a little different than yours.

[00:14:16.09]
They might think they're seeing
fish, but not seeing fish.

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They might be mixing species up.

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It takes a little time.

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It took me a number of years

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to really get down to what I did.

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My first season was in 1977.

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When you've got wolves in the
creek, all they eat is that.

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Basically, the brain.

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They'll catch the fish, bring
it out and eat its brain.

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And usually you find a bunch
of them laying on the beach.

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That's not looking good there.

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That's warm. Sixteen.

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There should be a bunch of
fish going [vocal sound].

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But I don't see much.

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I guess ocean conditions,
that's what everybody is saying.

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We've only got 310 pinks to here.

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We should be up into
the 10,000 range by now.

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[gentle ambient music]

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OK, you can run ahead now,
I don't care. I counted.

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We seem to have more poor
years than we have good years.

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I just wish my knees were a lot younger,

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then I could do more of it.

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Heavens, I tried to trade my
birthday with my granddaughter

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and she refused me.

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OK, let's start down before I get stiff.

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They gotta get some young
people in this business,

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there's no doubt about it.

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You gotta be out here to
know what the catches are,

[00:15:59.02]
what the streams are getting
back in this particular year,

[00:16:02.00]
just to fish this year alone.

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It's a lot of work.

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It actually needs a lot more
people out here doing it.

[00:16:11.01]
[boat motor rumbling]

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[plaintive piano music]

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Most of my adult life,
I've been doing it 38 years

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or something like that.

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Well, hopefully it's not dying out.

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My family, we changed our
lifestyle to accommodate

[00:16:50.04]
doing this work.

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- See where that boat
is in front of us there?

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That's Butedale.

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The huge big lake system behind it,

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it had a salmon cannery at one point.

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And then it went to a
reduction plant for herring.

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And a mega supply of fantastic water.

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And they had their own power supply,

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and that's what Doug
and I used to look after

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when we were there, was the power supply,

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'cause they had their own
generators with big Pelton wheels.

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But the coastline here was
just a regular pipeline.

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Everybody knew where everyone
was, what you were doing.

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When we lived in there, we
knew more about the people

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that lived on the outer coast here.

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And they knew more about us

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than we knew about ourselves, actually.

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'Cause everyone would
come in, would visit,

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then repeat what we said.

[00:18:10.02]
And we'd hear what was going
on out on the lighthouses.

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Yeah, it was really nice.

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It's changed quite a bit.

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- [Fisherman] Sounds like those guys

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are gonna have pretty slow fishing.

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They only got a one-day-a-week opening

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or something for them.

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It's pretty grim.

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How's numbers been looking
for what you're looking for?

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- [Doug] Probably some
of the worst returns

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we've ever seen in this area.

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- [Fisherman] Well, I guess
there's some kind of great big,

[00:18:39.07]
giant plankton blob off the coast there

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that seems to be throwing a
wrench into everything, eh?

[00:18:46.02]
- [Doug] Yeah, well,
they've sort of figured

[00:18:47.08]
that's what did most of
the pinks in this year.

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It's coast-wide.

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Right up into Alaska.

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It's a pile of dead water.

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I don't know how you recover enough

[00:18:57.08]
to have a surplus for fishing, so...

[00:19:01.06]
- [Fisherman] Wow.

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What a screwed up year this is, holy moly.

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- [Doug] Oh God, yeah.

[00:19:06.07]
No doubt about that.

[00:19:08.04]
And you gotta wonder about what's coming.

[00:19:12.00]
- [Fisherman] Yeah, so you're saying

[00:19:12.09]
that they're cutting you back on that gig?

[00:19:15.01]
- [Doug] Yeah, yeah, I'm
done here on the 20th.

[00:19:18.01]
I usually don't get
done till about the 10th

[00:19:21.03]
or 12th of October.

[00:19:23.01]
- [Fisherman] You're about
the only one left now, Doug.

[00:19:25.07]
[plaintive piano music]

[00:19:30.07]
- [Doug] There used to
be quite a few more.

[00:19:34.09]
Government boats are gone, the
fisheries officers are gone,

[00:19:36.09]
and there's just us.

[00:19:40.06]
There's just two of us left.

[00:19:48.02]
Of course we don't get it all done.

[00:19:53.04]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:19:59.07]
[gentle piano music]

[00:20:50.06]
- This area, Statistical Area 6,

[00:20:53.05]
is the largest statistical
area on the coast.

[00:20:58.01]
It probably has the most streams.

[00:21:00.00]
I think it's 129 streams that they think

[00:21:05.00]
that two people can look after.

[00:21:09.08]
This area, when I first started,

[00:21:12.01]
had had the main office in Kitimat.

[00:21:14.03]
It had a full staff--

[00:21:17.02]
a manager, an assistant
manager, and a clerk.

[00:21:21.08]
Three full-time fishery officers.

[00:21:24.04]
It had two departmental
fisheries patrol boats.

[00:21:28.08]
Five patrolmen like myself,
four Guardians based in cabins

[00:21:33.08]
in certain areas-- like
in creeks and stuff.

[00:21:37.04]
There was an airplane on
floats used for flying streams

[00:21:40.08]
and getting people around.

[00:21:42.05]
And then they switched
to using helicopters.

[00:21:46.04]
And that's what it took to run this area.

[00:21:48.09]
Now all we have is two
of us patrolmen left,

[00:21:53.02]
and our average age is 65. [laughing]

[00:21:57.08]
We're gonna be gone soon.

[00:22:02.08]
[plaintive orchestral music]

[00:22:12.09]
[toaster springs]

[00:22:32.09]
- Looks like a drugstore.

[00:22:48.09]
It's comin'.

[00:22:49.08]
Where's Griffin?

[00:23:04.01]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:23:10.05]
You wouldn't think
anything would be changing

[00:23:12.03]
looking out there.

[00:23:20.05]
The rain collects on the roof,

[00:23:23.02]
and we've got hoses connected to that.

[00:23:26.07]
And that's what goes into our water tanks.

[00:23:32.00]
The water off the roof.

[00:23:33.08]
We don't get any water
unless we go into Rupert

[00:23:37.00]
or someplace that's got water.

[00:23:39.08]
Otherwise we wouldn't have any water.

[00:23:41.02]
So that's why we kind of conserve.

[00:23:50.00]
I said to Doug, "I think it's gonna rain,

[00:23:51.04]
I'm gonna put the water hose in the tank

[00:23:53.06]
in case we get some rain."

[00:23:55.06]
He said, "Well, thanks very much."

[00:23:56.08]
I said, "Well, what do you mean by that?"

[00:23:58.06]
He said, "Well, you're
saying it's gonna rain,"

[00:24:01.00]
now he's gotta walk the creek. [laughing]

[00:24:06.05]
- [Doug] Don't I have a
lighter one of these things?

[00:24:07.09]
- [Carol] I don't know,
I'll go down and look.

[00:24:10.00]
- [Doug] I need a second
t-shirt or something.

[00:24:13.08]
- [Carol] You want it with you?

[00:24:14.06]
- No, I'll put it on.

[00:24:17.08]
I'll take it off.

[00:24:20.04]
That doesn't look like mine, does it?

[00:24:23.00]
- [Carol] You've got a
t-shirt, did you say?

[00:24:25.05]
- What was that?
- Did you say you have one?

[00:24:27.04]
- [Doug] There's another
old-- there's a dirty t-shirt.

[00:24:30.06]
- [Carol] It is raining.

[00:24:32.04]
- I know, you wished it on me.

[00:24:35.03]
- [Carol] No, I didn't.

[00:24:36.01]
I just said it looked
like it was going to.

[00:24:39.00]
I didn't say, "Oh, bring on the rain."

[00:24:44.09]
Where's your other t-shirt?

[00:24:55.06]
You wearing the sunglasses?

[00:24:56.08]
Do you want them in the pack?

[00:24:57.09]
- [Doug] Oh, I'll put
them in the case here.

[00:25:05.02]
- There's like nothing jumping.

[00:25:08.06]
Usually if there's a
great abundance of them

[00:25:11.01]
they'll be extras out here in the bay

[00:25:13.01]
that haven't gone up yet.

[00:25:14.02]
But nothing seems to be jumping.

[00:25:17.02]
Don't even see any birds.

[00:25:18.09]
There's no eagles.

[00:25:20.02]
This time of year there's
usually some chums

[00:25:22.02]
still hanging in the bay here.

[00:25:25.01]
And it's usually over
that shallows over there.

[00:25:27.01]
But I don't see any life
there, not even a seal.

[00:25:31.04]
- [Doug] Oh, my pepper spray is there.

[00:25:32.09]
- [Carol] Oh, right.

[00:25:39.01]
Six guns.

[00:25:43.08]
- Thanks.

[00:25:47.07]
What you worried about?

[00:25:49.06]
Eh?

[00:25:50.09]
What are you worried about?
What are you worried about?

[00:25:53.08]
- [Carol] He's afraid he's
gonna have to stay with me.

[00:26:01.08]
Got everything?

[00:26:03.04]
- [Doug] I hope so.

[00:26:06.02]
I'm ready.

[00:26:13.00]
Your turn now, huh, boy?

[00:26:15.06]
You staying or coming?

[00:26:16.09]
Let's go.
[taps boat]

[00:26:18.05]
Let's go.

[00:26:20.04]
Come on, get up here.

[00:26:21.07]
- You gonna stay with me?

[00:26:22.08]
Oh, I'll come and get you then.

[00:26:23.09]
Come on, you can stay up here with me.

[00:26:26.00]
Come on.

[00:26:27.06]
See, child psychology.

[00:26:35.08]
Amazing the two of them can
just fit in there like that.

[00:26:39.03]
So agile.

[00:26:43.06]
I usually watch till he hits the beach,

[00:26:47.01]
and then I know he's fine.

[00:26:55.01]
Doesn't look that far, but, you know.

[00:26:58.08]
Just looks like a dot in
the water, doesn't he?

[00:27:12.06]
Well, while they're gone I'm
gonna run the vacuum around.

[00:27:15.02]
[vacuum whirring]

[00:27:16.00]
[phone ringing]

[00:27:21.00]
Hello?

[00:27:23.02]
Hi.

[00:27:24.06]
- How are you?
- Good, and you?

[00:27:27.01]
Oh no, it's low water right now.

[00:27:29.05]
He'll do the one and paddle
into the other, so, yeah.

[00:27:33.09]
Everything going there fine?

[00:27:36.07]
Everything there going fine?

[00:27:39.07]
All right.

[00:27:41.03]
OK, if you can hear me,
talk to you later. Bye.

[00:27:45.08]
Oh, I lost her.

[00:27:48.04]
It just phases in and out.

[00:27:50.06]
Every once and a while she'll
say, "Oh, I can't hear you,"

[00:27:52.06]
or "You're all garbled," so
then we just say goodbye.

[00:27:54.04]
There's not point in yelling
back and forth. [laughs]

[00:27:57.05]
What's going on, so, yeah.

[00:27:59.05]
It's a quiet life.

[00:28:01.05]
I'm gonna be on the boat here, full-time,

[00:28:03.04]
20 years next year.

[00:28:06.02]
So it's been a fantastic
life and I can't complain.

[00:28:10.04]
And we had four fantastic years
when our daughter was young

[00:28:14.01]
in Butedale, and that's really memorable.

[00:28:21.00]
Doug and I are kind of the
ones that are off on our own.

[00:28:25.07]
Nobody wants to travel up here to see us.

[00:28:28.05]
They say, "Keep in touch," but it means,

[00:28:30.08]
"Come and see us, we're not
coming to see you" type thing.

[00:28:34.06]
And you won't get Doug out of BC, so.

[00:28:37.05]
He's not gonna leave British Columbia.

[00:28:43.08]
This is the day we got married.

[00:28:46.01]
I was 17, he was 19.

[00:28:49.08]
And that was one of Doug
had walked to the end

[00:28:52.09]
of one of his rivers and
that's where he got to.

[00:28:57.01]
[laughs]

[00:28:57.09]
We were poor, so we went on
a camping holiday, actually.

[00:29:05.06]
Here we go, Butedale.

[00:29:07.07]
This is your post office.

[00:29:08.08]
That's where I was.

[00:29:10.01]
Well, it was only me.

[00:29:12.07]
We ran the store and the post office.

[00:29:16.02]
We went in in '73.

[00:29:18.04]
We left in '77.

[00:29:21.01]
Oh, it was fabulous.

[00:29:23.06]
There was no TV, it was
just straight radio.

[00:29:26.06]
I guess people would call it isolated,

[00:29:28.06]
but we never felt isolated.

[00:29:31.02]
I taught Moyna kindergarten

[00:29:32.08]
through grade three, correspondence.

[00:29:35.09]
This is what Butedale looks like now.

[00:29:38.00]
It's falling apart.

[00:29:39.07]
Actually, there isn't even that
much of the buildings left,

[00:29:42.00]
I don't think.

[00:29:43.09]
And that was our first boat.

[00:29:45.03]
That was the boat that Doug
started his patrol work in.

[00:29:48.09]
At that time, the
fisheries officers came out

[00:29:50.09]
on patrol boats and they
actually walked the rivers

[00:29:53.08]
and counted the fish themselves.

[00:29:56.06]
But they also had the programs

[00:29:58.03]
where they would have patrolmen,

[00:30:01.00]
or Guardians they called us.

[00:30:03.02]
And that particular
year they needed someone

[00:30:06.01]
for the area that we were in,

[00:30:07.06]
so that's when we took the job.

[00:30:09.09]
Yeah.

[00:30:11.07]
Here's Moyna walking the creeks with Doug.

[00:30:14.07]
'Cause she'd go out with
him in the summer months

[00:30:17.00]
and then I'd come out
in August on my holidays

[00:30:20.02]
and bring her back to town.

[00:30:22.01]
She was so shy.

[00:30:24.03]
By the time she was
nine we felt it was time

[00:30:26.07]
that she should actually be in school

[00:30:29.05]
and able to learn social
skills more than anything.

[00:30:33.07]
So I moved into town and Doug stayed out

[00:30:37.00]
and worked on the boat.

[00:30:38.09]
She still walks with Doug.

[00:30:41.08]
And that's when Kyla was born.

[00:30:43.04]
You can see that I was
a proud grandmother.

[00:30:45.06]
Kyla is now 13.

[00:30:48.02]
Kyla's been coming out since
the year she was born in 2002.

[00:30:52.08]
And she's been walking creeks here

[00:30:55.02]
just the last three years.

[00:30:57.01]
There she is, her first canoe
ride with her mom and Doug.

[00:31:01.04]
That's Stan, yeah, with Kyla.

[00:31:04.05]
They understand that
we're out here working.

[00:31:07.00]
We get together every once
in a while, so it's nice.

[00:31:11.05]
There's Stan when he's on his boat.

[00:31:14.08]
Now there's Doug and Stan.

[00:31:16.06]
Definitely best friends.

[00:31:19.08]
[engine turning over]

[00:31:21.00]
[metallic clanking]

[00:31:43.07]
- It started off with
a little bit of a leak

[00:31:48.05]
in the exhaust manifold.

[00:31:54.06]
And then I drilled and tapped it,

[00:31:59.00]
and put a bolt and a gasket
on it, so I fixed that.

[00:32:04.06]
But then now the belts on
the front of the engine

[00:32:10.06]
are a little loose.

[00:32:14.03]
I've manged to figure out most things,

[00:32:16.07]
at least to get me back to town anyway,

[00:32:19.03]
so I can get it fixed properly.

[00:32:21.04]
[engine turning over]

[00:32:23.07]
[engine rumbling]

[00:32:30.07]
[raindrops pattering]

[00:32:49.04]
Today, showers.

[00:32:50.06]
Tonight, showers.

[00:32:52.03]
Tuesday, periods of rain.

[00:32:54.08]
Tuesday night, rain.

[00:32:57.06]
Wednesday, rain.

[00:32:59.01]
Wednesday night, rain.

[00:33:01.07]
Thursday, rain.

[00:33:04.03]
Thursday night, showers.

[00:33:09.01]
In rain like this you can't really do much

[00:33:11.09]
'cause the surface of the
water is all broken up,

[00:33:14.06]
so you can't really see down into it.

[00:33:17.07]
I should be doing my paperwork.

[00:33:20.00]
[laughs]

[00:33:20.09]
I don't like paperwork.

[00:33:22.08]
I was just checking to see
how many more I had to do.

[00:33:28.05]
Well, I've been lazy this week

[00:33:31.00]
so I got another 15 to enter,

[00:33:35.01]
plus today's stuff.

[00:33:38.09]
This is the program,
Stream Escapement Database.

[00:33:43.06]
Today we were counting coho,
pinks and chums, mostly.

[00:33:49.06]
We like to do at least three
counts for each stream.

[00:33:53.08]
So you got the early in the
season, at the beginning.

[00:33:59.02]
And then you like to get
the peak of spawning.

[00:34:03.08]
And then at the end, so you
kinda got the whole run in

[00:34:09.06]
so you can do a better estimate on that.

[00:34:13.07]
But I had...

[00:34:17.04]
I think it was 160,

[00:34:19.08]
around 160 inspections last year.

[00:34:26.02]
Well, the season's not over, but I'm

[00:34:31.09]
probably about 175 so far.

[00:34:36.07]
I do a lot.

[00:34:39.00]
[plaintive instrumental music]

[00:34:42.05]
It's not new, but the other
one's got a pretty good leak.

[00:34:49.08]
I think these have a leak, too.

[00:34:53.01]
At least they're dry to start with.

[00:34:55.09]
[dog toy squeaking]

[00:35:08.04]
I've been meaning to

[00:35:12.01]
fix my other one.

[00:35:14.08]
A few more years.

[00:35:17.01]
I'm gonna squeak a few more
years out of it, maybe.

[00:35:28.06]
Well, I hope I'm like
Doug, I can get to 70.

[00:35:32.07]
So that would be 10 years.

[00:35:37.01]
Physically I'm still good.

[00:35:38.04]
I'm able to outwalk most
of the young people, so.

[00:35:55.09]
I started here in '74.

[00:36:00.02]
I've had many different positions.

[00:36:04.09]
I worked on patrol boats.

[00:36:07.05]
[dog barking]

[00:36:11.06]
I worked in the engine
room as an engineer.

[00:36:15.07]
I worked as a mate.

[00:36:18.00]
I worked as a skipper,

[00:36:19.01]
like a captain on a couple of the boats.

[00:36:23.03]
Then I was a fisheries warden.

[00:36:26.08]
Fisheries officer.

[00:36:30.09]
As long as there's a
job, I'll keep doing it.

[00:36:37.08]
But, Doug Stewart,

[00:36:39.02]
his days are so short he
doesn't even get a chance

[00:36:41.07]
to finish his salmon escapement numbers.

[00:36:44.03]
So, all of his reports this
year will probably just say

[00:36:49.02]
"Adults Present" instead of
an actual number of fish.

[00:36:57.00]
[melancholy piano music]

[00:37:18.03]
- [Doug] The chums are done and the pinks,

[00:37:20.01]
they're just at the peak here.

[00:37:21.03]
I'm certainly disappointed,

[00:37:22.06]
I sure thought I'd see a
lot more chum. [laughing]

[00:37:26.02]
Anyhow, where are you off to today?

[00:37:28.07]
Yeah, well, OK.

[00:37:30.04]
Well, they do hold a while
in there, so, I don't know.

[00:37:33.02]
Yeah, well, even 7,500,
if you put that on it...

[00:37:36.07]
that doesn't make for a
fishery in two years time.

[00:37:40.06]
Oh yeah, how'd you make out in there?

[00:37:43.03]
Did you see any sign of
the grizzly in there?

[00:37:46.07]
- The two of them are like
two peas in a pod, actually.

[00:37:49.06]
They do the same thing, they
talk about the same things.

[00:37:54.05]
They've been together a long time,

[00:37:56.00]
worked together a long time.

[00:37:59.04]
They can practically tell
what the other one's thinking.

[00:38:03.00]
Their phone calls...

[00:38:05.02]
I get bored after a while
listening about fish,

[00:38:08.00]
and fish, and more fish.

[00:38:11.02]
Yeah, so I don't...

[00:38:13.04]
After a while I just
leave, let them go at it.

[00:38:18.09]
- Yeah, you too Stan.

[00:38:19.09]
Thanks.

[00:38:21.01]
We'll give you a call
here in the next day.

[00:38:22.09]
We were living in
Butedale when I met Stan.

[00:38:24.06]
He was 18 or 19 years
old when I first met him,

[00:38:27.02]
so just about 40 years we've been working

[00:38:29.09]
sort of together, I guess.

[00:38:33.07]
Stan and I, we share information.

[00:38:35.05]
So I've gotta bunch of all of
his reports that he sends in,

[00:38:38.01]
so I know what he's up to
and I do the same for him.

[00:38:41.00]
There's an annual stream
report for each system we do.

[00:38:44.08]
And then here's a record of
rainfalls that I send them.

[00:38:47.09]
This one goes from 1987 right up to 2011.

[00:38:53.06]
And then we make up weekly reports.

[00:38:56.03]
This one here talks a bit
about the commercial fishery,

[00:38:58.03]
and the sports fishery,
and the food fishery.

[00:39:00.09]
And I throw a few pictures in
just to make it interesting.

[00:39:04.09]
There's a neat-looking grizzly bear.

[00:39:09.01]
Oh, here's the famous picture.

[00:39:12.00]
That's Moyna's, I steal her pictures.

[00:39:14.03]
Everybody loves that picture.

[00:39:17.01]
I got all kinds of pictures
at the end of it here.

[00:39:19.06]
This is a stream.

[00:39:20.05]
I put a couple of pictures in
to show you what it looks like

[00:39:23.01]
in sort of a normal water flow,

[00:39:25.07]
and then what it looks like in full flood.

[00:39:28.02]
Oh, and this one, I just
took pictures to show

[00:39:31.02]
how the bank's being
eroded and all of the trees

[00:39:33.06]
that are coming down and
being washed downstream.

[00:39:36.06]
Anyhow, by the time the summer's over

[00:39:39.03]
we fill a bloody three-inch binder

[00:39:42.02]
with all of the bloody paper.

[00:39:43.09]
I don't really believe they
read it, but I could be wrong.

[00:39:48.04]
[gentle ambient music]

[00:39:51.04]
[water flowing]

[00:40:11.01]
And then I think about
things like the countryside.

[00:40:15.02]
Winning the lottery,

[00:40:19.00]
so I can do more things like this

[00:40:21.06]
without having to work for somebody.

[00:40:23.09]
I just daydream, it goes on and on.

[00:40:40.04]
I was thinking about how important it is

[00:40:42.04]
to having guys like me
out here doing this.

[00:40:45.05]
I've probably been walking
this stream for 36 years.

[00:40:50.00]
So I know what it looked
like over 36 years

[00:40:52.08]
at different times.

[00:40:55.00]
If they get rid of guys like
me, and they slowly are,

[00:41:00.07]
the numbers they get aren't
gonna be anywhere near accurate.

[00:41:12.01]
[pensive piano music]

[00:42:06.06]
[melancholy piano music]

[00:42:34.05]
- Most people would call it your kitchen,

[00:42:36.09]
but this is what we call our galley.

[00:42:39.00]
I've got an oil stove,
which is diesel run,

[00:42:41.04]
and this is what I cook on.

[00:42:42.09]
We use it for heat, as well
as heating the hot water.

[00:42:46.06]
If we were rolling or
anything in the seas,

[00:42:50.05]
you want to have the door locked.

[00:42:52.05]
And it's not to keep people out,

[00:42:54.02]
it's to keep the door from swinging open

[00:42:57.00]
and everything falling out on us.

[00:43:00.03]
Under the floorboards

[00:43:02.07]
I've got my potatoes, carrots, onions,

[00:43:07.07]
apples, oranges.

[00:43:09.02]
And because of the
temperature of the water,

[00:43:11.04]
it keeps everything
down there really cool.

[00:43:14.00]
I've got enough stuff down
there to do me a good month.

[00:43:17.06]
And this is my pantry,

[00:43:18.07]
and you can see I've got stuff everywhere.

[00:43:21.04]
But I did used to have it
where it was all lined up,

[00:43:25.03]
all my cans, everything,
and we'd go out in the sea,

[00:43:28.04]
and by the time we got
to where we were going,

[00:43:30.03]
everything was on the floor.

[00:43:31.06]
So now we put everything in tubs.

[00:43:35.08]
Dry goods, I've got enough
here to do us, oh gosh,

[00:43:38.06]
I bet I'm good for six months.

[00:43:40.06]
But produce and that only lasts 10 days.

[00:43:44.04]
You can't keep anything fresh
any more than about 10 days.

[00:43:47.03]
So you're on either frozen or canned.

[00:43:51.03]
Which is fine.

[00:43:52.07]
They're still good.

[00:43:55.05]
First year was really hard.

[00:43:58.08]
Being out on the boat,

[00:44:00.06]
90% I was the only woman there.

[00:44:04.04]
It was tough.

[00:44:05.04]
I gave up my house, my job,

[00:44:09.01]
seeing my family and
everything to move out here.

[00:44:11.06]
But after I talked to
myself a few times and said,

[00:44:14.05]
"OK, this is what you decided,

[00:44:15.08]
this is what you're gonna
do," I was fine with that.

[00:44:18.07]
And I'm still fine with that.

[00:44:46.00]
Good boy, Griffin.

[00:44:57.00]
How far did you get to?

[00:44:58.06]
- Huh?
- How far did you get to?

[00:45:00.08]
- Oh...

[00:45:02.05]
I got within half a mile of the lake.

[00:45:04.09]
- [Carol] Oh, wow.

[00:45:06.03]
That's quite a ways.

[00:45:07.08]
- Huh?
- That's quite a ways.

[00:45:10.07]
Any fish?

[00:45:11.07]
- [Doug] Oh, there's
chum, there's no pinks.

[00:45:13.02]
- No pink?

[00:45:14.05]
Wow.

[00:45:16.02]
- [Doug] Coho.

[00:45:18.05]
- Any other life?

[00:45:19.07]
- Nothing.
- Really?

[00:45:21.08]
- [Doug] I didn't even
see a scat out there.

[00:45:23.07]
- No?

[00:45:25.00]
- [Doug] No tracks.

[00:45:26.04]
The only thing that I
could see was the odd fish

[00:45:28.08]
that had been chewed on.

[00:45:30.08]
- There's one eagle been
flying back and forth.

[00:45:33.08]
- [Doug] Huh?

[00:45:34.07]
- I said there's just been one
eagle flying back and forth.

[00:45:35.09]
- [Doug] Yeah, there's
only been one eagle,

[00:45:37.01]
that's all I saw.

[00:45:38.06]
The only adult.

[00:45:39.06]
- Nope, and there's one seal
out here, we just seen it.

[00:45:44.06]
Other than that, I haven't
seen any fish here either.

[00:45:48.05]
It's been pretty quiet.

[00:45:51.03]
Come here, you're still soaking.

[00:45:53.06]
You're the worst one to dry,
'cause you won't stay still.

[00:45:59.07]
I know what you want,
you want your dinner,

[00:46:01.04]
but it's not ready.

[00:46:04.02]
They're charging up just
to get their dinner.

[00:46:07.05]
It won't take me long.

[00:46:10.06]
It won't take me long
to get it ready for you.

[00:46:13.07]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:46:19.00]
- Our contracts used to
always be like 120 days

[00:46:21.07]
and now it's down to 70.

[00:46:26.03]
It sort of came to a point where
we're actually volunteering

[00:46:29.09]
our time, for my own
satisfaction I know that the fish

[00:46:34.09]
are there at the right time and stuff.

[00:46:39.02]
[raindrops pattering]
[dog barking]

[00:46:44.07]
Our habitat monitoring
was pretty much shut down.

[00:46:49.02]
That was a big department

[00:46:50.08]
within the Department of Fisheries.

[00:46:54.05]
We used to actually
have on-site inspections

[00:46:58.09]
for pretty much everything.

[00:47:00.07]
Any development plans were all inspected

[00:47:03.08]
on the grounds and OK'ed.

[00:47:05.09]
Or if it was a logging shoal,

[00:47:09.06]
or if somebody was building a bridge,

[00:47:11.08]
or if somebody had to
get a piece of equipment

[00:47:15.01]
from one side of a river to another side,

[00:47:17.04]
there would actually be a representative

[00:47:19.01]
of the government to monitor it.

[00:47:22.01]
But that's not done anymore.

[00:47:23.06]
It's left to the people
that are doing it now.

[00:47:28.04]
They hire, like, a consulting
outfit or something

[00:47:31.08]
to do the work that the
government used to do.

[00:47:36.09]
It's kind of like the...

[00:47:39.07]
...the fox looking after
the henhouse, I guess.

[00:47:41.08]
[laughing]

[00:47:43.04]
You know.

[00:47:44.07]
You're always gonna favor on the people

[00:47:48.01]
that are giving you the paycheck.

[00:47:52.01]
I think, anyway.

[00:47:55.02]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:48:00.05]
[gentle ambient music]

[00:48:13.03]
That's one of the liquid
natural gas projects.

[00:48:23.03]
That was actually quite a
big hill there at one point.

[00:48:27.00]
They just cut the top right off it.

[00:48:29.03]
They took the mountain away.

[00:48:33.02]
It's actually an IR.

[00:48:35.04]
It's a First Nations Reserve Land.

[00:48:39.05]
So it's actually built right on a reserve.

[00:48:44.02]
That's the Haisla.

[00:48:47.08]
Bish Creek is a fairly
big producer for pinks,

[00:48:52.06]
chums, and coho.

[00:48:55.04]
And it's also a steelhead river, too.

[00:49:00.09]
And then Shell Canada has
a huge project underway.

[00:49:06.01]
And then there's-- I think
there was two or three

[00:49:10.02]
other smaller ones, too,

[00:49:11.07]
that they had proposed for that area.

[00:49:17.02]
[raindrops pattering]

[00:49:22.00]
Kitimat has all these
proposed LNG projects

[00:49:27.00]
and pipelines.

[00:49:33.06]
This is Kitimat LNG,

[00:49:34.09]
this is the Chevron one
I was talking about.

[00:49:41.06]
It's supposed to be a
5,000 or 7,000 man camp.

[00:49:48.02]
I guess the proper terminology

[00:49:50.03]
is all pre-construction, actually.

[00:49:53.01]
The setting up for construction.

[00:50:01.07]
So this is the site of one of the camps.

[00:50:11.05]
And you can sort of get a
feel for the size of it,

[00:50:16.03]
and all of the erosion already.

[00:50:31.06]
This will all be trailers, eventually.

[00:50:53.02]
Tankers is a big concern.

[00:50:56.02]
But there's not a lot of talk

[00:50:57.08]
about the actual pipelines themselves.

[00:51:02.04]
[dog barking]

[00:51:03.02]
Why don't you answer your bloody phone?

[00:51:07.07]
- They're in there screwing
up, I gotta get ahold of...

[00:51:10.05]
They're falling trees in there.

[00:51:13.04]
The survey group, right into the reds,

[00:51:15.07]
like overhanging vegetation.

[00:51:18.01]
- [Stan] Oh, in Anderson, you mean?

[00:51:18.09]
- Anderson, because
they're gonna realign it

[00:51:20.08]
with this Shell project.

[00:51:23.07]
- [Stan] So they're gonna
actually change the stream around?

[00:51:27.02]
- That lower end, yeah, where
all of the spawning happens.

[00:51:31.08]
- [Stan] How can they do that?

[00:51:32.07]
- They're gonna cut out
about, I don't know,

[00:51:35.02]
300 to 500 meters of stream in there.

[00:51:38.03]
Basically all that logjam area.

[00:51:40.06]
As I understand it, I haven't
seen the final design,

[00:51:42.04]
but that's what their proposal is.

[00:51:46.06]
Because they'll be using
that area north of that.

[00:51:50.00]
They'll be actually building in there.

[00:51:54.00]
- Here's one here, this is LNG Canada.

[00:52:01.03]
There's a good sign.

[00:52:03.06]
"Goal Zero. No Harm. No Leaks."

[00:52:06.01]
[laughing]

[00:52:10.08]
If a pipeline broke or
some spill or something,

[00:52:15.07]
and we didn't have an inventory
of what we have for salmon

[00:52:20.04]
in the river, how would we
know what damages were caused?

[00:52:25.04]
[pensive piano music]

[00:52:27.04]
And this is Bish Creek.

[00:52:31.03]
One of the streams that I walk.

[00:53:00.05]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:53:16.04]
- [Doug] You on here, Carol?

[00:53:17.08]
You on 14?

[00:53:20.00]
- [Carol] Yeah, go ahead.

[00:53:21.07]
- What time's high water?

[00:53:23.05]
- [Carol] Just a sec.

[00:53:28.01]
1300.

[00:53:29.06]
- Oh, OK, I've got lots of time then.

[00:53:31.01]
OK, thanks.

[00:53:33.01]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:53:47.05]
[tally counter clicking]

[00:53:52.00]
There's not a lot up here.

[00:53:53.09]
Not as much as there should be, anyhow.

[00:54:00.03]
We should have fish
running out from under us

[00:54:02.02]
all the time here right
now, and we haven't got any.

[00:54:08.03]
Oh, there's a few.

[00:54:10.08]
And that's about all it is, a few.

[00:54:14.06]
[melancholy piano music]

[00:54:21.03]
I've been doing this since
1977 and they've been cutting

[00:54:24.04]
this program constantly since 1977.

[00:54:29.06]
They say that they've got
somebody out here doing it,

[00:54:31.05]
and we're just a token effort, I guess.

[00:54:38.03]
I felt I was contributing
something to the future

[00:54:41.02]
of the salmon fishery
and the area as a whole.

[00:54:45.01]
But, yeah, it's quite disappointing.

[00:54:47.00]
I mean, now they just
sort of shuffle us off.

[00:55:07.06]
[boat motor rumbling]

[00:55:16.09]
I don't know how they're gonna do it.

[00:55:19.01]
They gotta get back into
counting creeks, I don't know.

[00:55:23.01]
Well, there's no interest in it.

[00:55:26.03]
That's the only conclusion
you can come to,

[00:55:27.09]
that the government of
Canada's really not interested

[00:55:30.09]
in the wild fishery at all.

[00:55:33.03]
[dog barking]

[00:55:35.08]
I mean it stops a lot
of development, really.

[00:55:40.08]
So maybe, I don't know,
there's ulterior motives here

[00:55:43.08]
or not, but you sometimes think
so but you mainly hope not.

[00:55:57.01]
- [Stan] Whale Point, Whale
Point, Hawk Bay on 14.

[00:56:01.03]
- [Radio] Whale Point on 02.

[00:56:04.03]
- I think there maybe
actually two males there.

[00:56:08.02]
- [Man] Oh, back there?

[00:56:09.07]
- [Stan] Yep, right where I am.

[00:56:11.09]
- [Man] OK, yeah, we've got three up here.

[00:56:19.06]
[dog barking]

[00:56:22.08]
- [Stan] Oh, yeah, the Sea
Wolf is another huge boat.

[00:56:26.08]
Huge.

[00:56:27.07]
- Yeah, it is.
- Yeah.

[00:56:30.00]
[sea birds squawking]

[00:56:36.00]
- There's two fin whales
that were just observed,

[00:56:38.02]
and so I'm just looking to
see if I can see them come up

[00:56:40.02]
to see which direction they're going.

[00:56:41.05]
And there's also a couple
of humpbacks out there.

[00:56:43.04]
So it's really neat, actually,

[00:56:44.07]
because a lot of times
you'll have these humpbacks

[00:56:46.03]
and fin whales, they
actually share the area

[00:56:48.06]
while they're out there foraging.

[00:56:52.00]
The fin whales are threatened.

[00:56:54.03]
The humpbacks were threatened as well,

[00:56:56.04]
but they were downlisted
to "special concern."

[00:56:59.01]
Our resident orcas are
threatened, as are transients.

[00:57:02.08]
So pretty much they're all threatened.

[00:57:05.06]
When we first arrived,

[00:57:06.07]
we documented 42 humpback
whales that were in this area.

[00:57:10.06]
By 2006 that number had
doubled to almost 82.

[00:57:14.07]
And now we have close
to 400 humpback whales

[00:57:17.08]
that are resident to this area.

[00:57:19.05]
And by "resident,"

[00:57:20.03]
I mean they keep coming
back year after year.

[00:57:22.02]
So what we think happened is we had

[00:57:23.08]
the original 42 resident humpback whales,

[00:57:26.09]
and somehow the information
was passed on to whales

[00:57:30.06]
they were traveling with,

[00:57:31.05]
perhaps whales they had
an acquaintance with

[00:57:34.01]
in Hawaii or Mexico, and said,
"Hey, I found a great place.

[00:57:37.06]
There's lots of food, it's very quiet."

[00:57:40.01]
And the word got out and
then all of these whales

[00:57:42.08]
just started coming in and coming in.

[00:57:44.08]
With fin whales, we documented
our first fin whale in 2006,

[00:57:49.07]
and we had three sightings that year

[00:57:53.00]
with two different individual whales.

[00:57:54.07]
And again, that population
started to grow from 2006

[00:57:58.00]
and now we have over 60 fin whales.

[00:58:00.03]
- [Man] They first
traveled west, then east,

[00:58:02.04]
then back to west.

[00:58:03.02]
- And there's lots of birds, eh?

[00:58:05.03]
We believe the reason that
this population is growing

[00:58:08.05]
is because there's so
much food here for them.

[00:58:11.03]
They can communicate with each other,

[00:58:13.00]
they can use sound to locate their prey,

[00:58:14.09]
because it really is a quiet ocean.

[00:58:17.06]
We're just gonna play a whale
sound for just one minute.

[00:58:20.08]
[whale vocalizing]

[00:58:32.04]
So the reason this ocean is so quiet

[00:58:34.01]
is because there is really hardly

[00:58:36.05]
any boat traffic through here.

[00:58:37.08]
There's days you can go out on the water

[00:58:39.05]
and you won't see another vessel.

[00:58:41.02]
[whale vocalizing]

[00:58:43.06]
And there's not too many
places left on this planet

[00:58:46.04]
where you can actually say that,

[00:58:47.09]
that you've listened to no
boat noise for a whole day.

[00:58:51.00]
[whale singing]

[00:58:54.08]
If any of these proposals go through

[00:58:56.05]
and we start having these
large tanker vessels transiting

[00:59:00.03]
these waters-- besides
the obvious oil spill

[00:59:03.01]
or an explosion with one
of these LNG vessels,

[00:59:06.05]
the effects of that are pretty obvious,

[00:59:08.01]
it would just be death everywhere.

[00:59:09.07]
But just the transiting of
these vessels-- for one thing,

[00:59:12.05]
you're having a huge
increase in the amount

[00:59:14.09]
of ambient noise in these waters.

[00:59:16.08]
So whales are not going
to be able to communicate

[00:59:18.07]
with each other, they're
not going to be able

[00:59:20.04]
to locate their prey.

[00:59:21.09]
But the biggest fear we
have is ship strikes.

[00:59:24.08]
There's days you can
be in Squally Channel,

[00:59:26.07]
which is the proposed tanker route,

[00:59:28.03]
and you have blows of humpbacks

[00:59:30.01]
and fin whales from one end to the other.

[00:59:32.00]
And if you go through there
with one of these tankers

[00:59:34.03]
you will hit a whale, you have no choice

[00:59:37.00]
because they are everywhere.

[00:59:38.04]
These whales are not boat savvy.

[00:59:40.07]
We are already, with smaller vessels,

[00:59:42.09]
we have whales showing up--

[00:59:44.01]
humpback whales where half
their fluke is missing,

[00:59:46.04]
or you can tell they
were hit just with a prop

[00:59:49.00]
just in behind their dorsal fins.

[00:59:50.07]
So, they will be struck.

[00:59:53.06]
We will see a decline in
their numbers without a doubt.

[00:59:56.05]
And it's really sad to us,

[00:59:58.07]
because years ago all
of the hunting occurred

[01:00:01.07]
and we lost so many
whales during those years.

[01:00:05.08]
And now finally the
numbers are coming back,

[01:00:08.02]
they're coming back into these waters.

[01:00:09.06]
They think it's safe, they
think they've found paradise.

[01:00:12.05]
And if any of these
proposals come through,

[01:00:15.07]
paradise will be lost for these whales.

[01:00:18.05]
[whale vocalizing]

[01:00:26.02]
[melancholy piano music]

[01:01:20.06]
- [Carol] Very disappointed.

[01:01:23.00]
After all these years of working hard

[01:01:25.09]
and feel that you are
contributing something

[01:01:28.02]
and then it just comes down to...

[01:01:31.08]
Well, nobody cares.

[01:01:36.03]
Nobody in the upper echelon cares.

[01:01:42.03]
In the government, I should say.

[01:01:48.06]
That's all there is to it.

[01:02:03.02]
- [Doug] Oh, there's a pink salmon!

[01:02:07.06]
One pink.

[01:02:10.09]
[pensive ambient music]

[01:02:14.06]
- You got no fish, you've got no bears,

[01:02:16.07]
'cause that's how they feed.

[01:02:18.03]
You got no wolves, you
don't have any otters--

[01:02:20.09]
you don't have any of these
animals that we're now seeing,

[01:02:25.04]
and they're all gonna disappear.

[01:02:34.00]
There's so much happens in a river,

[01:02:36.07]
even over the course of the summer.

[01:02:41.02]
We could have heavy rains
and it would be no water

[01:02:44.08]
to flood situations.

[01:02:46.07]
So what's happening to
the gravel and the eggs

[01:02:50.00]
that already been spawned out?

[01:02:57.06]
So, we'll have to see
what happens this year

[01:02:59.04]
over the winter.

[01:03:10.07]
And there might not be
anything in three years' time.

[01:03:28.05]
And the only one that can
see what's in the rivers

[01:03:32.06]
are the people that are walking them.

[01:03:55.04]
Out here shouldn't be just

[01:03:56.05]
for "come and see the last species" tours.

[01:04:24.09]
It should be, this is gonna be going on

[01:04:26.06]
for generations and generations.

[01:04:29.07]
What's my granddaughter gonna have--

[01:04:31.08]
her children--

[01:04:32.09]
if it isn't gonna be funded and
isn't gonna be looked after?

[01:04:36.07]
Oh no, don't. [laughing]

[01:04:38.04]
It's something that...

[01:04:41.04]
Yeah, I think it should be
funded for generations to come.

[01:04:47.02]
Excuse me.

[01:04:49.01]
But that's how I feel.

[01:04:50.04]
We've got another year on
our contract here and...

[01:04:57.07]
It may be funded again and it may not be.

[01:05:19.04]
[winch and chain clanking]

[01:05:55.09]
- It's...

[01:05:59.09]
...kind of frustrating
in a way, 'cause I've got

[01:06:06.04]
38 years of working with the department.

[01:06:11.08]
I kinda never ever thought
that it would get to a point

[01:06:14.09]
where nobody really cares
about the natural resources.

[01:06:22.01]
That side of it falls to
the bottom of the pile.

[01:06:45.04]
Always, I mean this has always--

[01:06:46.08]
well, this is a big
part of life, actually,

[01:06:50.09]
this walking streams and counting fish.

[01:07:01.05]
Now it's...

[01:07:09.02]
Now it's kind of over, I guess.

[01:07:18.04]
[plaintive piano music]

[01:07:44.00]
- Oh, it's coming.

[01:07:45.08]
"How much" is gonna be
the big question mark.

[01:07:49.08]
When you read the initial
reports on how many LNG plants

[01:07:54.03]
that they were gonna put in
Kitimat, I believe it was three.

[01:07:59.06]
And there was gonna be a ship
a day at each one of them,

[01:08:04.02]
plus all the pertinent other
vessels that they need.

[01:08:09.08]
So the traffic was gonna get outrageous.

[01:08:13.08]
You take in the summer time

[01:08:15.01]
when there's a commercial fishery going on

[01:08:16.09]
and we got four or five ships coming in

[01:08:19.00]
through the fishery every day,

[01:08:20.06]
it's gonna make some changes to it.

[01:08:22.05]
There's no doubt about it.

[01:08:26.05]
But the big thing, I guess, is
the influx of humpback whales

[01:08:30.01]
and fin whales to that country.

[01:08:31.07]
And having that many ships a day

[01:08:34.08]
is just gonna totally change that.

[01:08:38.08]
The pipeline itself's a big problem.

[01:08:41.07]
It crosses many hundreds
of rivers and creeks

[01:08:44.00]
and salmon streams
through all the mountains

[01:08:47.00]
through to Kitimat.

[01:08:52.01]
And then the other thing
I always wonder about,

[01:08:53.08]
what's gonna happen to
all of these pipelines

[01:08:55.06]
and these terminals and that

[01:08:57.08]
when they're all done with them?

[01:08:59.02]
What's in the rules to say,
well, you gotta take it all out,

[01:09:02.02]
you gotta return it to the way it was?

[01:09:04.05]
I don't think so,

[01:09:05.03]
I don't think there's
any of that in there.

[01:09:06.06]
I think they're just gonna
leave it where it is.

[01:09:11.06]
[dog barking]

[01:09:15.02]
- [Carol] Go back down.

[01:09:18.08]
- [Doug] Who's that, there's Kona.

[01:09:21.07]
[dogs barking]

[01:09:23.06]
Hi, Kona!

[01:09:24.06]
[dogs barking]

[01:09:36.03]
No, no, you stay here.

[01:09:37.04]
Both of you.

[01:09:38.02]
- No, no, no, no.
- No!

[01:09:43.08]
- [Carol] How you gonna get him back out?

[01:09:45.03]
- [Doug] Oh, we'll get him out.

[01:09:47.07]
All in good time.

[01:09:52.00]
Whatever happened out there,

[01:09:53.03]
they just about wiped
out the pinks this year.

[01:09:59.00]
Not far from it.

[01:10:00.08]
- It's gonna be worse when they run across

[01:10:02.08]
the mountains, I think.

[01:10:04.02]
All these landslides.

[01:10:07.00]
The size of the lines
that they're putting in

[01:10:09.03]
for natural gas is way bigger
than they actually need.

[01:10:14.08]
- [Carol] So, what does that
blasting do to the fish?

[01:10:17.01]
Does it vibrate through the river?

[01:10:19.02]
- [Stan] Yeah, it's a long ways, actually,

[01:10:21.05]
it affects things.

[01:10:23.01]
- Wow.

[01:10:23.09]
- It'll kill eggs.

[01:10:25.02]
- It'll kill eggs?
- Even well-set eggs?

[01:10:28.04]
- Well, at the beginning
at the critical stage,

[01:10:32.08]
once they're in the gravel for a while.

[01:10:35.05]
- [Doug] Water hardened, they're OK.

[01:10:36.09]
- [Stan] Yeah, right at the beginning

[01:10:38.07]
they're pretty sensitive.

[01:10:41.01]
- [Carol] You don't think
of these things, do you?

[01:10:42.08]
You don't think that any of
that would affect the fish.

[01:10:46.03]
- [Stan] There was a
time that all that stuff

[01:10:48.07]
had to be kinda contained to...

[01:10:52.03]
- Non-spawning periods.
- Yeah.

[01:10:56.01]
Nobody worries about it anymore.

[01:10:58.07]
There doesn't seem to be
any timing windows anymore.

[01:11:03.04]
They just get permission to do it.

[01:11:06.05]
- What's gonna happen in the future?

[01:11:08.01]
I mean, who's gonna...

[01:11:10.02]
Was all the work we did all
these years really worthwhile?

[01:11:13.05]
Or was it just such that,
"We didn't really need you

[01:11:17.04]
all that time, anyhow."

[01:11:20.09]
Just a waste of time.

[01:11:23.07]
The government just out there saying,

[01:11:24.09]
"Oh, we got people on the
field doing this and that."

[01:11:28.02]
And they didn't really care

[01:11:30.02]
whether they had you out there or not.

[01:11:32.06]
- [Stan] Still personal
satisfaction for us.

[01:11:34.09]
- Well, personal satisfaction's
there, definitely.

[01:11:39.06]
You just wonder about the future.

[01:11:41.06]
You would wish that the
information that I gathered

[01:11:44.04]
would push the next person
along the same line,

[01:11:49.07]
or improve on it or whatever.

[01:11:52.09]
- It's devastating, actually,
when you think about it.

[01:11:55.09]
There's no kids coming
up, there's nothing.

[01:11:58.08]
And nobody gives a damn.

[01:12:01.00]
- Kind of a sad thing, really.

[01:12:02.02]
- It is very sad.

[01:12:05.07]
[plaintive piano music]

[01:12:11.03]
The government seems to think now

[01:12:12.05]
that all these industries
should be self-policed.

[01:12:15.06]
Well, I don't think that works.

[01:12:17.03]
I don't think it's ever worked.

[01:12:19.00]
I don't think it ever will.

[01:12:20.07]
You gotta have somebody else.

[01:12:25.00]
I don't think it's good
for the environment

[01:12:27.02]
or good for the fish or good for fishermen

[01:12:29.05]
or good for local people.

[01:12:33.09]
It'll just be someone off somewhere else

[01:12:35.09]
that'll gain from it.

[01:12:38.05]
[boat motor rumbling]

[01:13:55.08]
[melancholy instrumental music]