Final Advisory Letter
Final report of the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council in its role as advisors on wild Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks and habitat.
Where did the fish go? Panel unable to pinpoint where Fraser salmon returns went
Submitted by carla on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 10:30.
The scientists didn’t pinpoint why the Fraser River sockeye returns collapsed, but did agree that climate change was a key factor.
The number of Fraser River sockeye salmon has been declining since the mid-90s and is now at the point where the salmon are in danger of disappearing, meaning that precautions like the closure of fisheries could be the new norm.
This year’s Fraser River sockeye returns were the lowest in 52 years. Only 1.4-million fish came back to spawn in the tributaries of the Fraser, a fraction of the expected number.
A think-tank symposium with 22 scientists and researchers met in Vancouver this week to discuss reasons for the collapse. A federal judicial inquiry has also been called.
SFU professor John Reynolds compared studying the collapse with figuring out a plane crash.
The symposium wasn’t sure why the number of sockeye was so low, but did say the collapse was not due to fishing, which was greatly restricted in 2009.
The problem, they think, occurred as the vulnerable juvenile salmon made their way to Georgia Strait in 2007. One point of consensus, Reynolds said, was that changes in the seas that affected the young salmon were likely the result of climate change.
“Climate was seen as sort of an overarching issue, but the exact ways it was affecting survival are still a bit of a mystery simply because there is not enough research in the coastal marine environment.”
Blocked by feds
Scientists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (the federal agency responsible for salmon) were invited to take part in the symposium, but the Conservative government did not allow them to participate.
Metro Vancouver newspaper
12/10/2009
by Jeff Hodson, Metro Vancouver
The scientists didn’t pinpoint why the Fraser River sockeye returns collapsed, but did agree that climate change was a key factor.
The number of Fraser River sockeye salmon has been declining since the mid-90s and is now at the point where the salmon are in danger of disappearing, meaning that precautions like the closure of fisheries could be the new norm.
This year’s Fraser River sockeye returns were the lowest in 52 years. Only 1.4-million fish came back to spawn in the tributaries of the Fraser, a fraction of the expected number.
A think-tank symposium with 22 scientists and researchers met in Vancouver this week to discuss reasons for the collapse. A federal judicial inquiry has also been called.
SFU professor John Reynolds compared studying the collapse with figuring out a plane crash.
The symposium wasn’t sure why the number of sockeye was so low, but did say the collapse was not due to fishing, which was greatly restricted in 2009.
The problem, they think, occurred as the vulnerable juvenile salmon made their way to Georgia Strait in 2007. One point of consensus, Reynolds said, was that changes in the seas that affected the young salmon were likely the result of climate change.
“Climate was seen as sort of an overarching issue, but the exact ways it was affecting survival are still a bit of a mystery simply because there is not enough research in the coastal marine environment.”
Blocked by feds
Scientists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (the federal agency responsible for salmon) were invited to take part in the symposium, but the Conservative government did not allow them to participate.
http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/393298--where-did-the-fish-go
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