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Fishery studies exonerate Natives in missing salmon

Author

Susan Lazaruk Windspeaker Contributor, Vancouver

Volume

12

Issue

21

Year

1995

Page 3

The release of studies into the case of the missing salmon in British Columbia waters has failed to completely solve the mystery.

But Natives say the conclusion that warm water - not illegal fishing - was to blame exonerates them.

"These reports should lay to rest once and for all the specter of Aboriginal poaching as the cause of the missing salmon," said Ernie Cray of the Sto:lo fisheries Authority.

Half of the estimated 800,000 sockeye (revised downward from 1.3 million originally thought missing) that failed to return to spawning grounds on the Fraser River last summer died because of unusually high water temperatures, according to the federal studies.

An additional 169,000 salmon were legally caught - 113,000 by Aboriginal fisheries and 56,000 by commercial fishermen - but were not recorded because of inadequate monitoring.

That leaves more than 150,000 sockeye unaccounted for, report the studies, prepared for a federal commission headed by John Fraser, former Speaker of the House of Commons.

The studies concluded the missing salmon were not poached.

Some of the warmest water on record - a July average at one point on the Fraser was 17.7 C, or three degrees higher than the long-term average - killed fish by stress, it said.

But the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition challenged the theory warm water killed about 400,000 fish, because few carcasses were found. The coalition still blames Native commercial fisheries, which started operating in 1992 upriver.

The federal fisheries department is expected to adjust its catch limits whenever temperatures climb so high, which would allow more fish to reach the spawning grounds to breed.

The groups co-operating with the four studies were the fisheries department, Pacific Salmon Commission and the University of British Columbia's Westwater Research Centre and its department of forest sciences.

Those studies come on the heels of a damning report that warns Pacific fish will disappear unless commercial fishing is cut back and changed.

The report by scientist Carl Walters says part of B.C.'s salmon fishery were almost eliminated last summer. It also says enforcement of the industry is minimal and the fishery is supported too much by public funds through the unemployment insurance program.

The report recommends fleets should be cut by half, gill nets that snare all fish should be banned and sport fishing should be drastically reduced in the Georgia Strait.

In addition to the missing salmon, the abalone, ling cod and herring fisheries have been closed.

"We will go the way of Newfoundland unless there are big changes immediately," said Walters. He predicted the salmon could become extinct within a few decades.

Almost 5,000 commercial fishing licences are issued on the West Coast, and the industry sells about $1 billion worth of fish every year. Another 500,000 people fish for fun.

Walters, a UBC biologist, did The Future of Pacific Fisheries for the David Suzuki Foundation, an independent environmental think-tank.

The report suggests to raise money for research and better monitoring, the fishing industry should be levied on a tax on each fish caught, much like the forest industry stumpage fee on each tree cut.

Some pats of the fishery are still pulling in tremendous profits. The herring season, for instance, lasts only 15 minutes in some areas and boats still make million dollar catches.

The West Coast fishery is too large, with about 15,000 workers, 40 per cent of whom rely on unemployment insurance for up to 42 weeks a year. Walters estimates 30 to 40 per cent of the workers would leave the industry if UI was no longer available.

But the fishing industry's largest union accused the report of making scapegoats of commercial fishermen and being alarmists about the collapse of the industry. It maintains the threat to a few stocks of fish is urban sprawl, pollution and sports fishing.

And the Fisheries Council of B.C., which represents fish processing plant, calls the report too general but endorses the idea of smaller fleets and better monitoring.

Meanwhile, Aboriginal fishermen are seeking compensation for the cancellation

of the Adams River sockeye fishery because of last summer's shortfall. The cancellation leaves the Sto:lo about 43,000 sockeye short of its 1994 allocation.

Cray said the 600 fishermen from 27 Native Indian communities are "very angry". A federal fisheries department official agreed the Sto:lo deserve compensation.