Government Budget Cuts Mean Canada Cannot Maintain an Accurate Picture of the Health of Wild Pacific Salmon Stocks

An advisory report and background paper issued by the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (PFRCC) warn that salmon conservation risks are increasing due to budget and program cuts in Fisheries & Oceans Canada.

Fisheries Decisions Being Made Without Essential Salmon Stock Information

VANCOUVER, February 6, 2004 - The Council found that the reductions in assessment budgets and survey coverage of Pacific salmon are occurring just when better data are urgently needed for salmon management and decision-making, and for continuity of long-term scientific knowledge.

The Council's report entitled Advisory: Salmon Conservation Challenges in BC With Particular Reference to Central and North Coast (443 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF) also cited positive indicators of better spawning results in much of the region, mainly related to reduced fishing pressure and improved marine survival conditions. It went on to identify instances where reductions in fish monitoring and assessment are leading to troubling knowledge gaps about the status of stocks.

A detailed background paper by the Council's science advisor, Dr. Brian Riddell, was also issued with the advisory. Entitled Pacific Salmon Resources in Central and North Coast British Columbia (1.7 MB Adobe Acrobat PDF), the background paper provides an extensive review of each of the region's salmon species and their unique conditions and life histories.

The Council's Advisory pointed out that without sufficient science-based information, sound management decisions for the resource cannot be made with confidence and levels of sustainable fishing cannot be determined. The 1999 Pacific Salmon Treaty, the new Species at Risk Act and Canada's relationship with its First Nations all demand better quality data on salmon stocks. Cutbacks to the assessment and monitoring programs of Fisheries & Oceans Canada in these circumstances are causing a loss of public confidence in the federal government's commitment to protect Pacific salmon.

"Given the breadth of issues facing the management of Pacific salmon stocks, information and data are more crucial now than ever before," said the Honourable John Fraser, Chairman of the PFRCC. "Reliable monitoring and reporting on naturally-produced Pacific salmon needs to be a top priority. Salmon conservation relies upon it."

The Council strongly feels that there needs to be an explicit and sustained commitment of funds for a core assessment framework. Without this commitment, the value of the data painstakingly collected over the years will be seriously degraded.

The background paper identified five specific issues that Fisheries & Oceans Canada will need to address:

* A concerted assessment of the smaller sockeye lake populations should take place during the next few years and study the genetic structure of these stocks in order to define the conservation units for sockeye salmon.

* Each chum population in the region should be designated by run timing, and genetic variation between summer and fall chums should be assessed. Fisheries & Oceans Canada should establish some quantitative capacity to assess summer chum salmon.

* The indicator stock programs for coho and chinook salmon are essential to evaluate changes in marine survival rates and fishery impacts over time. They provide the only means to assess the causes of changes in coho and chinook production and to provide verification for the visual escapement surveys. There are no indicator stocks for coho and chinook salmon in some areas of central and northern BC.

* Fisheries & Oceans Canada should establish an assessment framework for each salmon species, and consider how these salmon "stocks" may be accounted for under the Canadian Species at Risk Act.

* There should be a thorough review of the major hatchery programs, addressing the questions of whether or not they are providing the expected or desired benefits, and how they could be modified to aid other populations, assessment programs, or uses. These evaluations should involve the local communities.

The Council urges that any contemplated budgetary cutbacks to core salmon assessment programs and sciences not be disproportionately larger than reductions in other program areas. Any reductions should not create or worsen conservation risks, and the groups that would be affected by any such decisions should be consulted first.

Public confidence and trust is at stake if stock assessment efforts are further reduced. This core information is critical to conserve salmon, maintain social, cultural, and economic benefits from the resource, and restore public credibility in the government's determination to protect wild salmon.

The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council is an independent source of information and advice to the fisheries ministers of Canada and British Columbia and to the Canadian public.

For more information, contact:

Kevin Langlands
Media Liaison
250-792-1599


Dr. Brian Riddell
Science Advisor
250-758-0894

Related Reports:

Salmon Conservation Challenges in British Columbia with particular reference to Central and North Coast: Council Advisory 2004

Pacific Salmon Resources in Central and North Coast British Columbia