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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070817.wsockeye0817/BNStory/National/homeHarvest of Fraser sockeye curtailed
Canadian Press
August 17, 2007 at 4:37 PM EDT
Victoria — The collapse of this summer's sockeye run on the largest salmon-producing river system in the world means no commercial or recreational fishing of the fish and seriously curtailed access for First Nations.
But a senior official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada is confident there will be enough sockeye entering British Columbia's Fraser River to ensure good spawning, which is the bottom line.
And while no sockeye are being pulled from the Fraser for sale to the public, there are still millions returning to other parts of the Pacific Coast to ensure that grocery stores and restaurants will still have sockeye for sale, albeit fewer and more expensive.
The forecast had been for 6.3 million sockeye to swim up the Fraser River from the Pacific this year, but the bottom has fallen out of that prediction.
Based on test fishing and monitoring, Fisheries has revised that forecast steeply down to just 1.6 million sockeye.
“At that level, there is not enough for commercial fisheries or recreational fisheries and there's not enough to meet all First Nations needs,” said Paul Ryall, who leads the salmon team at Fisheries and chairs the Fraser River Panel, the management mechanism under the Pacific Salmon Treaty with the United States.
In a normal year, about one million Fraser River sockeye would be earmarked for food, social and ceremonial use by First Nations.
As of mid-August, Mr. Ryall said about 100,000 sockeye had been taken by aboriginal fishermen and there may be a chance twice that number could be allocated.
“We think that we could harvest safely about 150,000 to 200,000 at the current run size, so there would be the ability to have some [further] very limited harvest for First Nations only,” he said.
In the international, multi-jursdictional world of salmon management on the Fraser, the Number One priority is conservation and the need to get enough fish back to the spawning grounds to produce future generations.
Next in line comes the obligation to First Nations. Commercial and recreational fisheries rank at the bottom.
According to the Sto:Lo Tribal Council, the limited harvest is creating hardship for all the First Nations of the Fraser and there are concerns there may not be enough sockeye to feed elders and families this winter.
“Frankly, I've not seen a summer such as this in 40 years,” said Grand Chief Ron John in a letter to Fisheries on Aug. 16.
The Sto:Lo have complained recreational fishermen on the Fraser are taking untold numbers of sockeye.
They accused Fisheries of allowing the Fraser River sport fishery to become “a macabre and destructive force” and have called on the department to close down the sport fishery.
Late this week, authorities made the decision to shut down a 40-kilometre stretch of the lower Fraser, from Mission Bridge to Hope, to all recreational salmon fishing, effective 12:01 a.m. Aug. 20.
The move is designed to eliminate the number of sockeye inadvertantly snared by sport fishermen.
Mel Kotyk, Fisheries' acting area director for the lower Fraser, said First Nations leaders were generally pleased with move, but in a teleconference call made it clear they thought the sport closure should have covered a larger area of the river and its ocean approaches.
“They like the direction, but they felt it should have gone further,” Mr. Kotyk said Friday.
Commercial fishermen, who rely on sockeye as their “money” fish, are also worried.
“It's devastating for those who just fish in the south and don't have licences to fish other parts of the coast,” said Irvin Figg, president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers union, now a part of the autoworkers' union.
He estimated up to 600 fishermen may be affected.
“For them, the season's just going to be a write off.”
He said commercial harvest of sockeye was also banned by Fisheries for conservation reasons in 2005, despite an unprecedented return of what is known as the Horsefly run.
The collapse of the 2007 sockeye is being largely blamed on poor survival in the ocean of fish that migrated to the Pacific two years ago.
“The ocean in 2005 was quite warm,” said Mr. Ryall. “That's not a good condition for production of food to make these fish survive and grow.”
He said that theory is supported by the low number of Fraser River coho salmon returning this year after they, too, migrated to the ocean in 2005 and the relatively strong return of sockeye from the Harrison Lake area.
The Harrison Lake sockeye migrated to the ocean a year before the majority of sockeye from other parts of the Fraser system.
While other Pacific rivers are showing lower than forecast sockeye returns, they are not seeing the extremely low numbers in the Fraser.
Mr. Ryall said nearly 500,000 Skeena River sockeye have been taken commercially and Alaska is also allowing openings for sockeye.
In fact, according to Mr. Figg, the Americans are doing extremely well.
“Alaskan sockeye is coming back like gangbusters,” said Mr. Figg, prompting him to question the Canadian estimates.
“Our sockeye and their sockeye all go out into the Pacific and feed in the same spot.”
But Mr. Ryall noted all is not lost for commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the river this year.
“There will be pink salmon returning in sizable numbers and there's definitely interest, commercially,” said Mr. Ryall.
“Later in the fall there will be chum salmon, with both commercial and First Nations interest. And there has been some chinook fishing in the spring and it will continue into the fall and throughout the winter in very limited fashion.”
“So there is still going to be some salmon fishing, just no sockeye,” he said.
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