As the predictions failed it leads to the closure of all the sockeye fishing on the river for the third year in a row. Scientists had predicted a healthy return of sockeye in 2009 after two years of hiatus. But the most recent numbers show this year’s Fraser River sockeye run is only expected to be 600,000 fish, about seven percent of the original prediction of 8.7 million, making it perhaps the worst return on record.
It is told that the prediction was largely based on the strong spawning year in 2005 and the salmon’s four-year life cycle, but was considered to be accurate only 50 percent of the time. Irvin Figg, the president of the United Fisherman and Allied Workers union, said the news of the closure again is devastating for commercial fishermen, and it has been made worse by news that the other summer big run on the Skeena River on the Central Coast also might not open to commercial fishing this year, hitting many fishermen with a double-whammy.
Figg also opined that the news is depressive and the anger comes from not knowing what the heck is going on. Figg wants the federal government to pay for more studies to uncover why so few sockeye are returning to their spawning grounds. Ecologist Craig Orr, who studies sockeye as the executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said the cause of what is now three years of low returns is unclear.
