The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has tabled a report with evidence at the Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser sockeye. DFO investigators estimated 97 percent of lower Fraser sockeye harvested under aboriginal food fisheries are sold, according to one document summarizing internal department concerns after an April 2010 meeting. Scott Coultish, who heads DFO’s Intelligence and Investigation Services branch, defended the figure before the commission.
He said that these evidences gave fresh weight to long-running claims of widespread native poaching and illegal sale of salmon. The report also states that the main cause of illegal harvest is the sale of that product. A 2006 operational intelligence assessment by DFO’s Special Investigations Unit warned illegal sales of First Nations-caught fish is widespread across B.C. via back door dealing to restaurants and fish shops as well as door-to-door sales.
As per the assessment report the FSC (food, social and ceremonial) First Nations fishery on the Lower Fraser River is largely out of control and should be considered in all contexts, a commercial fishery. DFO warned that it is unable to effectively control the illegal sales. Various methods and levels of sophistication allow First Nations-caught salmon to be laundered into regular commercial markets, it added.
The findings were in response to a 2005 probe by fishery officers who suspected large amounts of First Nations-caught sockeye was going into cold storage at outlets across the Lower Mainland for later illegal sale. That was the end of a season where low sockeye returns meant no commercial fishery was allowed, nor was any aboriginal economic opportunity fishing (a limited for-profit commercial fishery for First Nations.)
