According to the Pacific Salmon Commission sockeye salmon run size at 1.37 million which is the worst on record and significantly below the last two dismal years. The fishermen had hoped that this would not be repeated. Department of Fisheries and Oceans area director and Fraser panel chair Barry Rosenberger said that the migration through Juan de Fuca Strait has virtually dried up to zero.
It is told that small numbers of sockeye have continued to come around Vancouver Island through Johnstone Strait. If there’s a glimmer of good news for sockeye it’s that the Fraser River’s water temperatures have cooled from dangerously high levels in late July and early August.
Rosenberger informed that low water flow conditions due to a summer with little rain remain an ongoing challenge for migrating salmon. Sockeye fishing has been banned for commercial, sport and aboriginal sectors. There’s no estimate of the numbers yet, but hopes are high the pre-season forecast of 17 million pinks returning to the Fraser will prove accurate.
Federal NDP natural resources critic Nathan Cullen accused federal fisheries minister Gail Shea of turning a blind eye to the collapse of the sockeye fishery in B.C. An NDP action plan proposes a salmon summit, more funding for salmon enhancement, relocation of senior fisheries managers to B.C. and emergency funding to phase out open caged fish farms in favour of closed containment.
