Phantom fish confound counters

Page 3

Where have all the fish gone? They may not have been there in the first place, said Ernie Crey, a spokesman for the Sto:lo Fisheries Authority.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans have reported that of the fish it counted entering the Fraser River system, 1.3 million salmon have gone missing on their way to spawning grounds.

The department has launched an internal investigation to find out what or who caused the fish's disappearance in three of four traditional salmon runs. Crey believes DFO need only look to its sonar counting device and other technologies used to estimate runs to determine the problem. These technologies have failed time and time again, he said.

The DFO may have overestimated the size of this year's run based on the data from the sonar device, said Crey. Fisheries management and the techniques employed to count the fish are not reliable. The salmon may never have escaped U.S. fleets that fish on the ocean at the mouth of the Fraser.

The sonar device, known as an echo sounder, is attached to the bottom of a boat that travels back and forth across the river at Mission, B.C. 24-hours a day determining the number of fish that have outwitted commercial and sport-fishermen. The Pacific Salmon Commission insists the sonar device is accurate to 10 per cent, but its 1993 estimations failed to detect 1.2 million sockeye and five million pink salmon in the run, said Crey.

This year fisheries officials say they cannot account for 115,000 of the 183,000

fish counted as part of the early Stuart run. The early summer run is missing 200,000 of 480,000 fish and one million of the 2.3 million fish in the main summer run seem to have gone astray. This leaves the three million fish expected up river in the Adams run, of which 227,000 fish are allotted to the Aboriginal fishery.

"If this run has collapsed, it will underscore the need for a broad-based inquiry," said Crey. Aboriginal fisheries support the internal investigation undertaken by DFO, Crey said, but a widespread probe into the entire management system of the Fraser is the only way to answer all the questions about this year's run.

Any unanswered questions will only fuel the accusations of groups like the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, who are intent on blaming the Aboriginal fisheries for the demise of fish stock, said Crey.

The survey coalition has been quick to point the finger for the fish disappearance at Native poaching, Crey said though there are a small number of fishermen that do operate outside the regulations, they could in no way poach 1.3 million fish.

Other groups have speculated the fish were lost to unusually high water temperatures which reduced the fish's staying power to fight the currents on their way to spawn.

Native groups opposed the Kemanco 2 power project on the Nechako River believe reduced water levels on the river have led to higher water temperatures and increased the burden of the salmon in that part of the Fraser water system.

Dana Wagg, a researcher/writer for the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, said we shouldn't be surprised at the reductions of the fish stocks, adding that scientists have been predicting these results for a long time.