The natives of Fraser River want total ban on all salmon as overfishing decreasing the numbers of the fish drastically. The current summer returns of this most prized of Pacific salmon species were supposed to herald a recovery to a near-normal total of about 10.6 million fish, following two consecutive, extremely poor years of less than two million each.
The Pacific Salmon Commission said in its most recent weekly news release that summer-run sockeye were expected to comprise more than 80 per cent of the total adult return of Fraser River sockeye this season and provide most of the harvest opportunities. It is also told that the commission’s latest estimate of summer-run sockeye calls for about 2.8 million fish to return.
According to a report the reason for the low return of Fraser sockeye to date is presently unknown. But while the commission may be stymied over why sockeye returns are so dismal, Chilliwack-based Stolo fisheries adviser Ernie Crey thinks he has a significant part of the answer — thanks to his First Nations elders.
Crey explains that the strength and hardiness of the average sockeye to survive its return trip up the Fraser to spawn has slowly diminished. It means a higher percentage of fewer sockeye now succumb to temperature, water-flow fluctuations and other risks in the river. The sockeye fishery has been closed to commercial fishing, and the First Nations fishery has had just one two-day opening, opined Crey.
