The Pacific Salmon Commission’s pre-season estimate of 9.8 million returning fish was cut to 5.5 million on Monday, prompting environmentalists and fishermen to express concern. “It’s alarmingly bad,” said Greg Taylor, senior fisheries adviser at the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. Hopes were high for the sockeye run this year, in part because the fish return to the Fraser River on a four-year cycle, with 2022 being one of the expected peak years, he said. The low number raises conservation concerns and suggests the sockeye fishery in BC waters is unlikely to open this year, creating what a trade association of fishermen says are dire conditions for its members.
Cross-border tensions
It came days after a less conservative estimate sparked tension between US and Canadian officials. The commission, which was created jointly by the United States and Canada to manage Pacific salmon stocks, estimated last Thursday that the run would be 7.2 million before reducing that figure further. While the US accepted the panel’s assessment last week and allowed its fisheries to open over the weekend, Canada’s Department of Fisheries urged a more conservative count and Canadian fisheries remained closed. A sockeye salmon is reeled in along the banks of the Fraser River near Chilliwack, BC, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press) “The United States agreed to our recommendations last week and Canada wanted to see a number even lower than what was recommended,” said Fiona Martens, head of the Commission’s fisheries management programs. Martens said the commission is making its best guesses based on test catches and models. The number of fish returning was still trending up Thursday but had not yet peaked, he said. “To come up with the best run size, we need to see a peak in that data. We didn’t see that last week, so there was definitely some uncertainty,” Martens said. The U.S. fishery has since been closed, he said.
Extreme disappointment
Fisheries Secretary Joyce Murray was not available for an interview, and the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife did not return a request for comment. Kevin Lemkay, a spokesman for Murray, said the government follows the panel’s decision “with great concern” for both wild salmon and Canadian harvesters. “DFO was clear during the negotiations that it believed the (committee’s) run size estimates were too high and was extremely disappointed to see fishing proposals allowed based on overly optimistic estimates of run sizes,” he said Lemkay in a statement. While Canada is pleased the commission has since taken a more “precautionary approach,” he said the government is equally disappointed that sockeye runs are proving weaker than expected. Fishermen expressed frustration over both the lost opportunity to fish and the lack of support they felt from the government. For Kyle Louis, who fishes out of Steveston, BC, learning that his American counterparts were hitting the water while he was forced to dock was heartbreaking. “Fortunately for myself, I deal with other fish. I do crab, shrimp, herring. But for the mamadist businesses that only have gillnet licenses and rely solely on that, they’re going to have to sell their boats, they’re going to have to sell the equipment them,” he said from Cowichan Bay.
The industry is asking for government support
James Lawson, president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union-UNIFOR, said some commercial fishermen went out to sea thinking they would catch fish and could not afford to return home without a catch. The federal government is not offering enough transition support to fishermen as the industry collapses around them, he said. Employment insurance is unaffordable when attached to income that doesn’t exist, and leave fees must be reduced for financial relief, he said. 1/7 Up & down the Pacific coast, from Bristol Bay, Alaska to Columbia, returns pic.twitter.com/umCBrciGb9 —@WatershedWatch_ “They should be asking for a workforce adjustment for us, maybe some disaster relief,” he said, noting that fishing has been limited for years. The association believes in acting based on the best available science and agrees with the committee’s estimates, including Thursday’s estimates, which predicted a tentative harvest, he said. Now that the peak has passed, the brief fishing opportunity is gone. “What little opportunity there was, the Americans took advantage of it effectively, leaving us out of the water. They beat us to the punch, while our government kept us tied to the dock,” he said.
Fraser returns an “anomaly”
Short Fraser runs are a troubling anomaly that may indicate the impact of human activity, according to Taylor. Notably, walleye returns in other parts of the North Pacific, from Russia to the Columbia River, have been strong, he said. They include British Columbia’s Skeena River and Barclay Sound. Fraser’s weakest returns are in the southern and eastern parts of the watershed where people have altered the landscape, he said. Bad runs this year include the famous Adams Rivers and others in the Kamloops and Shuswap areas. Much of the area around the Fraser River is used by the Metro Vancouver Port Authority. (Ben Nelms/CBC) “That raises some questions. You know, that’s where the population lives, that’s where humans have really manipulated the habitat,” he said, adding that climate change also contributes to warming waters, fires and other negative local impacts. Fraser River crustal falls can be canaries in the coal mine, potentially reflecting the health of the Salish Sea and the land around it, he added. “I hate to use that tired old metaphor, but it’s true,” he said. The numbers should send warning signals to all British Columbians about the need to reform logging practices and protect and restore habitat, he said. “The future doesn’t look good for the poor salmon unless we do this.”
