Native Fishing Association

05/28/2026

Usually, on our # posts we feature strong happy Indigenous women in fishing….This week we’d like to honour our NFA staff (currently all women!) who make it a point to get on fishing vessels at least once a year to learn directly from skippers about the economic challenges and opportunities of their fishing businesses. Thank you to those generous skippers - you know who you are 😉

The NFA staff are also #! Understanding your fishing world firsthand helps us serve you better with financial serves and business supports!

05/12/2026

NFA has a shrimp by trawl licence for sale.
We are currently taking bids for a shrimp licence: S 51:36’. We will be taking offers starting at $21,600 from now until May 29. Please email your bids to [email protected]. (We won’t be accepting bids through DM).

04/24/2026

Family/Friends and Fishing Friday

I reached out to a fisherman/harvester who I see working almost year round on our beautiful bounty that the ocean provides

Kerby Sampson comes from Lax Kw Alaams and Kitamaat and this is what he shared with me - and has allowed me to share

Kerby learned from his grandpa and grandmother from Haisla. He started when he was 9 years old, going to oolichan camp to help make the grease. Kerby started fishing for his grandparents (when they couldn’t go anymore) when he was 21 years old, in Kemano. His grandpa Ron Reece and his grandmother Joyce Reece taught him how to harvest oolichans. He was taught how to prep for boiling and how to boil them to extract the grease. Kerby works with his grandpa Ron Reece, brother Tristan Reece, and his wife Debra Innes. One of my uncles will come whenever they are available. We have a different crew each year becusse everyone working or some passing away, like my grandmother. They get the oolichans in kemano and then take them to our camp where we make grease in Kildala, an hour outside of Kitimat. Kemano is about 8 hours away by gillnet.

Kerby mentioned - unfortunately they didn’t get any oolichans this year - so he shared pictures from 2025

Thank you, Kerby for sharing

04/17/2026

Family, Friends and Fishing Friday

I talked with a few people about harvesting “Oolichans”

The Nisga’a have been harvesting oolichans for many centuries - they used to have 100’s of camps - and now they are down to 8 to 12 camps (estimate) - the first picture is from the early 1900 - in the Nass Valley

I was fortunate to be able to talk to a few guys from this camp - Mitchell Steven’s camp / this camp is made up by family - uncles and nephews

There are some pictures of a man teaching his son about preserving / smoking the oolichans

They’ve allowed me to share some pictures from the 2026 Oolichan Harvest

04/13/2026

04/02/2026

🌸 Happy Easter Weekend!

Just a heads-up: our office will be closed from Friday, April 3 to Monday, April 6, 2026.
We’ll be back and ready to assist you on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

Our office won’t be monitored during this time, but you can email us at [email protected]
, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we return.

03/20/2026

NFA’s SECOND OPEN LETTER TO DFO:

NFA published an Open Letter to DFO in August 2025, raising concerns that the lack of commercial sockeye salmon openings had severe negative economic impacts on BC’s Indigenous commercial fleet.

DFO’s response was disappointing, citing their rationale of conservation concerns (which were not sufficiently substantiated) and using the “FSC” opening as justification that they were respecting Indigenous fishing rights.

NFA has sent a second letter to DFO in response, reminding them of the importance and rights intrinsic in BC’s Indigenous commercial fleet.

03/19/2026

Another #
“FSC”, “food fish”, “grey market” are all modern terms that reflect Canada’s (DFO’s) opinion that Indigenous fishing rights should be limited to food consumption, social events and ceremonial purposes… and that it does not include selling fish for economic gain.

S.35 of Canada’s Constitution Act (1982) protects ALL pre-existing fishing rights.

So, did Indigenous Peoples trade fish before the settlement of the west coast? You bet they did!

S.35 protects selling fish for economic gain!