This Week in Salmon Fisheries: Ottawa Hands Fraser Pinks to U.S., Alaska’s Salmon Steal, Skeena Steelhead Struggle– Sept 5
September 5, 2025
By: Greg Taylor
Each week, Watershed Watch’s fisheries advisor Greg Taylor will share his expert insights on what’s happening in B.C.’s salmon fisheries. With decades of experience in the industry, Greg offers a blend of observations, analysis, and personal perspective.
Southeast Alaska
Well, the numbers are in, verifying what we have been saying all season. Alaska, facing a very poor pink season in Southern Southeast Alaska (SSE), created opportunities for their fishermen to intercept Canadian fish.
Almost 40 per cent of the SSE Alaskan catch in 2025 was caught in interception fisheries. Further, Alaskan fishermen abandoned their traditional fishing areas in Alaska’s inside waters due to very poor catches and poured into expanded openings in District 104 (outside of the Alaskan panhandle) to intercept passing salmon and steelhead.
These fisheries, like the US seine fisheries ongoing south of Point Roberts this week, make no attempt to selectively harvest target species. High numbers of unreported chinook and steelhead migrating south are killed, along with hundreds of thousands of sockeye, coho, chums, and pinks migrating to B.C. streams.
This just didn’t happen. It was intentional. I hope our Canadian Commissioners at the Pacific Commission and our delegates engaged in the renegotiation of the Canada-US Treaty take note of this.
Northern B.C. – Area 3 (Portland Canal and the Nass River) Salmon
Strong returns of sockeye in the Nass River continued again this week and the escapement goal for Meziadin sockeye (the largest sockeye producer (~75 per cent) in the Nass River system) have now been met with a return as of last night of 170,000 adults. The current projected Total Return to Canada (TRTC) for Nass sockeye is approximately 434,000 fish. While this remains below the long-term average of 603,000, it represents a significant improvement compared to earlier projections this season.
Preliminary in-season harvest estimates show that the Area 3 commercial fisheries (Area C gillnet and Area A seine) have caught around 32,200 Nass-bound sockeye. The Nisga’a Nation has harvested approximately 99,420 sockeye across treaty, demonstration, and food, social, and ceremonial (FSC) fisheries. In addition, other First Nations groups, including Lax’kwaalams, Metlakatla, and Gitanyow, have harvested about 25,000 sockeye through both FSC and commercial fisheries combined.
While the sockeye outlook has improved, the situation for Nass River chinook salmon remains concerning. The current projected escapement is only about 11,000 fish, which falls short of the 15,000 fish conservation goal. In the upper Nass, only two sites provide in-season chinook counts. At Meziadin, just 38 chinook have returned, a sharp decline from the recent average of 253. However, returns to the Kwinageese River are more encouraging, with 637 chinook counted so far; close to its recent long-term average of 654. In terms of harvest, the preliminary in-season run reconstruction indicates that the Nisga’a Nation has harvested about 4,921 chinook. An estimated additional 300 chinook were taken in the marine recreational fishery, while other Nass-area First Nations have harvested approximately 144 chinook for FSC purposes. All in-river recreational chinook fisheries were closed for 2025.
Fishing for pinks in Area 3, north of Prince Rupert, was good. The seine fleet has caught about 1.4 million pink salmon. The fleet claims it has discarded about 56,000 chums. No one knows how many they discarded because DFO does not require fishery-independent monitoring. One must assume most of the discarded chums are unlikely to successfully spawn as DFO does not require the fleet to fish in a manner that supports this objective. The same goes for the coho, chinook, and steelhead that the fleet is required to discard.
Northern B.C. – Skeena Salmon
The current in-season forecast for Skeena sockeye is for just under 1.7 million. This compares to the pre-season forecast of 2.7 million.
Almost 1.1 million sockeye have passed through the Babine River fence so far this year.
Steelhead returns, which showed some strength at the beginning of the season, are now looking poor, as estimated by the Tyee test fishery. This is after Alaskan and B.C. marine fisheries have taken their toll, but before steelhead run the gauntlet of legal and IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) in-river fisheries. The Province of B.C. estimates that the escapement of steelhead as estimated at Tyee (before any additional in-river mortality) is sufficient so as not to require any restrictions on the recreational fishery. The Province has complained to the Department about the 2025 commercial fishery. DFO’s response is essentially, ‘if you are satisfied that the number of steelhead reaching their rivers satisfies conservation objectives, what’s your problem?’. Meanwhile, the Province is refusing to implement any management measures in the recreational steelhead fishery even though the return is approaching the lower “Extreme Conservation Concern” threshold that would trigger a full closure of the fishery. The Province and DFO are playing ‘chicken’: seeing who will blink first. Meanwhile, it is the steelhead who are the true losers in this game.
Skeena coho look relatively poor. Skeena chums, which are very depressed, are being reported in fisheries and recorded in the test fishery. This is good news. Pinks remain abundant, although it appears the return peaked early, is now declining, and won’t be nearly as large as indicated earlier in the season.
Chinook returns to the Skeena were better than in recent years. The return is still much less than it was in its banner years. Chinook may be benefiting from this year’s recreational restrictions.
Pink salmon escapements are a mixed bag. There are good pink escapements into the Kitwanga River and likely the Skeena mainstem, but escapements into the Lakelse River, which is one of the Skeena’s major pink producers, are awful. We can only hope warm weather is delaying migration.
Pink production throughout the North Pacific was poor this year, again showing the influence of marine habitats on salmon productivity. Pink production in Prince William Sound, Southeast Alaska, B.C.’s South Coast, and Russia were all below expectations based on the estimated number of fry that went to sea in the brood year.
What does it mean for all salmon species who were in the ocean along with pink salmon in the fall and winter of 2024/25? Coho are sometimes a useful indicator of ocean survival. But coho survival on the south coast is excellent. And some coho returns in Alaska are also solid. I do note that the number of jack sockeye returning to the Babine in 2025 is poor. Jack sockeye also spend one winter at sea. It is therefore unclear what the poor performance of pinks throughout the North Pacific basin means for other species, if anything.
Fishing is ongoing in Babine Lake at the outlet of the Fulton and Pinkut enhancement facilities for sockeye surplus to spawning requirements. This fishery is currently on track to harvest more sockeye than the marine gillnet and seine fisheries combined. Look for this sustainable, OceanWise-recommended, First Nation’s product in the frozen sections of Costco and other major grocery stores this fall and winter.
Area 6 Pink Salmon
Stop and think about this for a moment. DFO is choosing to abdicate its core responsibility to monitor and assess salmon returning to a large part of British Columbia.
This is the harbinger of the upcoming draconian budget cuts DFO is set to impose over the next two years. And these cuts are independent of the budget cuts being promised by the Carney government. It is a frightening time for people who care for salmon.
This recently released paper reports that DFO’s monitoring in the last decade was the worst on record. Here is a summary by the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
There has been no communication from DFO on how it intends to implement these cuts and ensure the next decade is not as bad as the previous one. For if it is, they will have dug a hole they may never escape from.
Sept 9 Update: Good news to share. We’ve been informed by DFO staff that they are renewing contracts for creekwalkers across the province for this year. We’ve updated our emailing tool to reflect the need for DFO to commit sustainable funding for long-term monitoring programs. Click here to send your letter.
Somass (Barkley Sound) Sockeye
The Barkley Sound commercial sockeye fishery is over for 2025. The total catch was around 270,000. Escapements are 375,000, well below the 535,000 target. The harvest rate was 42 per cent, which is over what it should have been for this run size. The return was clearly early and didn’t support later timed fisheries. Having said the above, escapements exceeded the biological reference goals of all three systems that support the fishery.
The Barkley Sound chinook fishery targeting Robertson Creek enhanced chinook is in full swing and it is a big one. The return was forecast to be around 84,000. It was upgraded this week to 120,000.
The catch to date is around 65,600 shared between First Nations and stakeholders, including a recreational catch of 33,000. The commercial allocations may be small, but these are high-value fish.
Fraser River Sockeye
The total return of Fraser sockeye is expected to be around 9.73 million: 725,000 Early Stuart, 400,000 Early Summer, 7,000,000 Summers, and 1,150,000 Late Summers. The forecast was for only 2.9 million. This year’s return, although better than recent years, is similar to the cycle line average.
However, while indications are that the first three run timing groups appear to not have suffered as high as in-stream mortality as feared; there is considerable concern for a portion of the late run sockeye return. Late-run sockeye returning to the Birkenhead River have passed by Mission already. However, Late Shuswap and Portage that delayed in the Gulf (this is normal for these populations) will be exposed to very high water temperatures as they begin their migration up the Fraser as I write this.
Temperatures may hit 20 degrees during their in-river migration. It is thought anything above 16.4 may limit successful migration. Twenty degree river temperatures are anticipated to lead to high levels of pre-spawn mortality for these populations.
Ironically, it is believed these populations evolved this delaying strategy to take advantage of better migrating conditions in September. Our changing climate is throwing a spanner into this strategy.
Water temperatures at Hope are currently around 4 degrees above normal, at almost 21 degrees. For old guys like me, that is almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit! Salmon are a cold water species that expanded from refuges soon after the retreat of the glaciers. Such temperatures are better suited to carp than salmon.
Fraser River Pinks
And you thought this was a Canadian fishery? After all, this is the largest salmon producing river in Canada. Think again.
Canadian fishermen have caught about 28,000 Fraser River pink salmon out of their 4.7 million Total Allowable Catch (TAC; about ½ of 1 per cent). Meanwhile US fishermen have caught 970,000 of their 1.65 million TAC, or about 60 per cent. If Canadian processors had access to 60 per cent of their TAC of Fraser pinks, the wholesale value to the British Columbia economy would have been around $22.5 million.
There would have been a significant economic benefit if DFO even shared late-run sockeye impacts with the US, instead of giving them all over to the US.
Recall that under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, US fishermen cannot fish for Fraser sockeye in Washington State without Canada’s approval. Further, the bulk of US effort is not selective, unlike Canadian fisheries. Besides the catch of pink salmon, there are large amounts of chinook, late-run sockeye, coho, and steelhead being caught. None of which is reported because the Pacific Salmon Commission only cares about sockeye and pinks.
Again, this is a Canadian-sanctioned fishery while Canadian fishermen sit on the beach looking on.
Consider that the line which the US fishermen fish is a straight line along the B.C./Washington border from Point Roberts to Active Pass so any salmon that migrate through this area are vulnerable (and most do). So what is the bycatch? Who knows? But anyone connected to the industry is well aware of the amount of chinook that salmon processors are handling south of the border.
And don’t tell me it is because we are conserving late-summer sockeye. The Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC), who are the experts, say they anticipate the escapement of late-summer sockeye will be one of the largest on record for this cycle line. Although, as I say above, some degree of caution is necessary. A large number are not expected to live to see their spawning grounds.
Meanwhile, Canada agreed today to extend the non-selective US fishery through Wednesday of next week. And yes, selective Canadian fishermen are still being kept tied up. Low-impact recreational fishing opportunities for Canadian anglers are also being passed up.
The PSC-adopted run size for pink salmon is 12.5 million. It is much lower than the p50 (median) forecast of 27 million, but above the escapement objective.
South Coast Recreational Fisheries
I have spoken previously to the high abundance of chinook and coho on the south coast. This has attracted an intense fishery.
I have spent much of the summer reporting on commercial fisheries from Alaska through to the Fraser River. But the largest and most economically valuable fishery in B.C. is the south coast recreational fishery. And it is the worst monitored of any legal B.C. fishery.
We have some information on retained catch through creel surveys (interviews with anglers about what they caught and kept), although budget cuts have reduced them in 2025, but only guesses as to the amount of fish released. And even less information on the proportion of released fish that survive to spawn. Recall that the reason we have regulations requiring fishermen to discard chinook is to protect the sizes of chinook thought most likely to come from threatened and endangered populations and to assist in the recovery of those populations.
One would think DFO would be interested in understanding the impact of the fishery of populations of concern.
As I say above, there are limited creel surveys to give us some information in some areas in some times about retained catch, because, after all, a monitor can see a retained fish, but as the majority of fish are discarded, monitors must rely on peoples’ memories, and willingness to share, on how many fish they either discarded or that escaped before being landed. And DFO’s estimate of how many discarded salmon survive to spawn is, to put it as kindly as I can, inconsistent with the best available science.
Now consider how we all focus most of our attention on commercial sockeye fisheries. Canadian commercial fishermen have caught about 225,000 Fraser sockeye, 160,000 in Barkley, and another 240,000 on the north coast. In June and July alone (and remember this is only a partial estimate from the limited areas and times where DFO had creel surveys in place), the south coast recreational fishery’s chinook and coho catch was 657,000.
And again, we would all be protesting if commercial fisheries were being monitored like South Coast recreational fisheries. This is the largest and most valuable mixed-stock commercial fishery (in terms of economic benefits) in B.C., and yet we give them a pass on how they monitor their impacts on less abundant, threatened, or endangered salmon populations. It’s not like the recreational industry and DFO don’t have the combined capacity to verify retained catch and releases along with stock composition. Washington State does it for a much smaller fishery.
I will provide more details next week.
Greg will be providing weekly fisheries updates, which we will publish here on Fridays. Stay tuned.
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This Week in Salmon Fisheries: Ottawa Hands Fraser Pinks to U.S., Alaska’s Salmon Steal, Skeena Steelhead Struggle– Sept 5
September 5, 2025
By: Greg Taylor
Each week, Watershed Watch’s fisheries advisor Greg Taylor will share his expert insights on what’s happening in B.C.’s salmon fisheries. With decades of experience in the industry, Greg offers a blend of observations, analysis, and personal perspective.
Southeast Alaska
Well, the numbers are in, verifying what we have been saying all season. Alaska, facing a very poor pink season in Southern Southeast Alaska (SSE), created opportunities for their fishermen to intercept Canadian fish.
Almost 40 per cent of the SSE Alaskan catch in 2025 was caught in interception fisheries. Further, Alaskan fishermen abandoned their traditional fishing areas in Alaska’s inside waters due to very poor catches and poured into expanded openings in District 104 (outside of the Alaskan panhandle) to intercept passing salmon and steelhead.
These fisheries, like the US seine fisheries ongoing south of Point Roberts this week, make no attempt to selectively harvest target species. High numbers of unreported chinook and steelhead migrating south are killed, along with hundreds of thousands of sockeye, coho, chums, and pinks migrating to B.C. streams.
This just didn’t happen. It was intentional. I hope our Canadian Commissioners at the Pacific Commission and our delegates engaged in the renegotiation of the Canada-US Treaty take note of this.
Northern B.C. – Area 3 (Portland Canal and the Nass River) Salmon
Strong returns of sockeye in the Nass River continued again this week and the escapement goal for Meziadin sockeye (the largest sockeye producer (~75 per cent) in the Nass River system) have now been met with a return as of last night of 170,000 adults. The current projected Total Return to Canada (TRTC) for Nass sockeye is approximately 434,000 fish. While this remains below the long-term average of 603,000, it represents a significant improvement compared to earlier projections this season.
Preliminary in-season harvest estimates show that the Area 3 commercial fisheries (Area C gillnet and Area A seine) have caught around 32,200 Nass-bound sockeye. The Nisga’a Nation has harvested approximately 99,420 sockeye across treaty, demonstration, and food, social, and ceremonial (FSC) fisheries. In addition, other First Nations groups, including Lax’kwaalams, Metlakatla, and Gitanyow, have harvested about 25,000 sockeye through both FSC and commercial fisheries combined.
While the sockeye outlook has improved, the situation for Nass River chinook salmon remains concerning. The current projected escapement is only about 11,000 fish, which falls short of the 15,000 fish conservation goal. In the upper Nass, only two sites provide in-season chinook counts. At Meziadin, just 38 chinook have returned, a sharp decline from the recent average of 253. However, returns to the Kwinageese River are more encouraging, with 637 chinook counted so far; close to its recent long-term average of 654. In terms of harvest, the preliminary in-season run reconstruction indicates that the Nisga’a Nation has harvested about 4,921 chinook. An estimated additional 300 chinook were taken in the marine recreational fishery, while other Nass-area First Nations have harvested approximately 144 chinook for FSC purposes. All in-river recreational chinook fisheries were closed for 2025.
Fishing for pinks in Area 3, north of Prince Rupert, was good. The seine fleet has caught about 1.4 million pink salmon. The fleet claims it has discarded about 56,000 chums. No one knows how many they discarded because DFO does not require fishery-independent monitoring. One must assume most of the discarded chums are unlikely to successfully spawn as DFO does not require the fleet to fish in a manner that supports this objective. The same goes for the coho, chinook, and steelhead that the fleet is required to discard.
Northern B.C. – Skeena Salmon
The current in-season forecast for Skeena sockeye is for just under 1.7 million. This compares to the pre-season forecast of 2.7 million.
Almost 1.1 million sockeye have passed through the Babine River fence so far this year.
Steelhead returns, which showed some strength at the beginning of the season, are now looking poor, as estimated by the Tyee test fishery. This is after Alaskan and B.C. marine fisheries have taken their toll, but before steelhead run the gauntlet of legal and IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) in-river fisheries. The Province of B.C. estimates that the escapement of steelhead as estimated at Tyee (before any additional in-river mortality) is sufficient so as not to require any restrictions on the recreational fishery. The Province has complained to the Department about the 2025 commercial fishery. DFO’s response is essentially, ‘if you are satisfied that the number of steelhead reaching their rivers satisfies conservation objectives, what’s your problem?’. Meanwhile, the Province is refusing to implement any management measures in the recreational steelhead fishery even though the return is approaching the lower “Extreme Conservation Concern” threshold that would trigger a full closure of the fishery. The Province and DFO are playing ‘chicken’: seeing who will blink first. Meanwhile, it is the steelhead who are the true losers in this game.
Skeena coho look relatively poor. Skeena chums, which are very depressed, are being reported in fisheries and recorded in the test fishery. This is good news. Pinks remain abundant, although it appears the return peaked early, is now declining, and won’t be nearly as large as indicated earlier in the season.
Chinook returns to the Skeena were better than in recent years. The return is still much less than it was in its banner years. Chinook may be benefiting from this year’s recreational restrictions.
Pink salmon escapements are a mixed bag. There are good pink escapements into the Kitwanga River and likely the Skeena mainstem, but escapements into the Lakelse River, which is one of the Skeena’s major pink producers, are awful. We can only hope warm weather is delaying migration.
Pink production throughout the North Pacific was poor this year, again showing the influence of marine habitats on salmon productivity. Pink production in Prince William Sound, Southeast Alaska, B.C.’s South Coast, and Russia were all below expectations based on the estimated number of fry that went to sea in the brood year.
What does it mean for all salmon species who were in the ocean along with pink salmon in the fall and winter of 2024/25? Coho are sometimes a useful indicator of ocean survival. But coho survival on the south coast is excellent. And some coho returns in Alaska are also solid. I do note that the number of jack sockeye returning to the Babine in 2025 is poor. Jack sockeye also spend one winter at sea. It is therefore unclear what the poor performance of pinks throughout the North Pacific basin means for other species, if anything.
Fishing is ongoing in Babine Lake at the outlet of the Fulton and Pinkut enhancement facilities for sockeye surplus to spawning requirements. This fishery is currently on track to harvest more sockeye than the marine gillnet and seine fisheries combined. Look for this sustainable, OceanWise-recommended, First Nation’s product in the frozen sections of Costco and other major grocery stores this fall and winter.
Area 6 Pink Salmon
Stop and think about this for a moment. DFO is choosing to abdicate its core responsibility to monitor and assess salmon returning to a large part of British Columbia.
This is the harbinger of the upcoming draconian budget cuts DFO is set to impose over the next two years. And these cuts are independent of the budget cuts being promised by the Carney government. It is a frightening time for people who care for salmon.
This recently released paper reports that DFO’s monitoring in the last decade was the worst on record. Here is a summary by the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
There has been no communication from DFO on how it intends to implement these cuts and ensure the next decade is not as bad as the previous one. For if it is, they will have dug a hole they may never escape from.
Sept 9 Update: Good news to share. We’ve been informed by DFO staff that they are renewing contracts for creekwalkers across the province for this year. We’ve updated our emailing tool to reflect the need for DFO to commit sustainable funding for long-term monitoring programs. Click here to send your letter.
Somass (Barkley Sound) Sockeye
The Barkley Sound commercial sockeye fishery is over for 2025. The total catch was around 270,000. Escapements are 375,000, well below the 535,000 target. The harvest rate was 42 per cent, which is over what it should have been for this run size. The return was clearly early and didn’t support later timed fisheries. Having said the above, escapements exceeded the biological reference goals of all three systems that support the fishery.
The Barkley Sound chinook fishery targeting Robertson Creek enhanced chinook is in full swing and it is a big one. The return was forecast to be around 84,000. It was upgraded this week to 120,000.
The catch to date is around 65,600 shared between First Nations and stakeholders, including a recreational catch of 33,000. The commercial allocations may be small, but these are high-value fish.
Fraser River Sockeye
The total return of Fraser sockeye is expected to be around 9.73 million: 725,000 Early Stuart, 400,000 Early Summer, 7,000,000 Summers, and 1,150,000 Late Summers. The forecast was for only 2.9 million. This year’s return, although better than recent years, is similar to the cycle line average.
However, while indications are that the first three run timing groups appear to not have suffered as high as in-stream mortality as feared; there is considerable concern for a portion of the late run sockeye return. Late-run sockeye returning to the Birkenhead River have passed by Mission already. However, Late Shuswap and Portage that delayed in the Gulf (this is normal for these populations) will be exposed to very high water temperatures as they begin their migration up the Fraser as I write this.
Temperatures may hit 20 degrees during their in-river migration. It is thought anything above 16.4 may limit successful migration. Twenty degree river temperatures are anticipated to lead to high levels of pre-spawn mortality for these populations.
Ironically, it is believed these populations evolved this delaying strategy to take advantage of better migrating conditions in September. Our changing climate is throwing a spanner into this strategy.
Water temperatures at Hope are currently around 4 degrees above normal, at almost 21 degrees. For old guys like me, that is almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit! Salmon are a cold water species that expanded from refuges soon after the retreat of the glaciers. Such temperatures are better suited to carp than salmon.
Fraser River Pinks
And you thought this was a Canadian fishery? After all, this is the largest salmon producing river in Canada. Think again.
Canadian fishermen have caught about 28,000 Fraser River pink salmon out of their 4.7 million Total Allowable Catch (TAC; about ½ of 1 per cent). Meanwhile US fishermen have caught 970,000 of their 1.65 million TAC, or about 60 per cent. If Canadian processors had access to 60 per cent of their TAC of Fraser pinks, the wholesale value to the British Columbia economy would have been around $22.5 million.
There would have been a significant economic benefit if DFO even shared late-run sockeye impacts with the US, instead of giving them all over to the US.
Recall that under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, US fishermen cannot fish for Fraser sockeye in Washington State without Canada’s approval. Further, the bulk of US effort is not selective, unlike Canadian fisheries. Besides the catch of pink salmon, there are large amounts of chinook, late-run sockeye, coho, and steelhead being caught. None of which is reported because the Pacific Salmon Commission only cares about sockeye and pinks.
Again, this is a Canadian-sanctioned fishery while Canadian fishermen sit on the beach looking on.
Consider that the line which the US fishermen fish is a straight line along the B.C./Washington border from Point Roberts to Active Pass so any salmon that migrate through this area are vulnerable (and most do). So what is the bycatch? Who knows? But anyone connected to the industry is well aware of the amount of chinook that salmon processors are handling south of the border.
And don’t tell me it is because we are conserving late-summer sockeye. The Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC), who are the experts, say they anticipate the escapement of late-summer sockeye will be one of the largest on record for this cycle line. Although, as I say above, some degree of caution is necessary. A large number are not expected to live to see their spawning grounds.
Meanwhile, Canada agreed today to extend the non-selective US fishery through Wednesday of next week. And yes, selective Canadian fishermen are still being kept tied up. Low-impact recreational fishing opportunities for Canadian anglers are also being passed up.
The PSC-adopted run size for pink salmon is 12.5 million. It is much lower than the p50 (median) forecast of 27 million, but above the escapement objective.
South Coast Recreational Fisheries
I have spoken previously to the high abundance of chinook and coho on the south coast. This has attracted an intense fishery.
I have spent much of the summer reporting on commercial fisheries from Alaska through to the Fraser River. But the largest and most economically valuable fishery in B.C. is the south coast recreational fishery. And it is the worst monitored of any legal B.C. fishery.
We have some information on retained catch through creel surveys (interviews with anglers about what they caught and kept), although budget cuts have reduced them in 2025, but only guesses as to the amount of fish released. And even less information on the proportion of released fish that survive to spawn. Recall that the reason we have regulations requiring fishermen to discard chinook is to protect the sizes of chinook thought most likely to come from threatened and endangered populations and to assist in the recovery of those populations.
One would think DFO would be interested in understanding the impact of the fishery of populations of concern.
As I say above, there are limited creel surveys to give us some information in some areas in some times about retained catch, because, after all, a monitor can see a retained fish, but as the majority of fish are discarded, monitors must rely on peoples’ memories, and willingness to share, on how many fish they either discarded or that escaped before being landed. And DFO’s estimate of how many discarded salmon survive to spawn is, to put it as kindly as I can, inconsistent with the best available science.
Now consider how we all focus most of our attention on commercial sockeye fisheries. Canadian commercial fishermen have caught about 225,000 Fraser sockeye, 160,000 in Barkley, and another 240,000 on the north coast. In June and July alone (and remember this is only a partial estimate from the limited areas and times where DFO had creel surveys in place), the south coast recreational fishery’s chinook and coho catch was 657,000.
And again, we would all be protesting if commercial fisheries were being monitored like South Coast recreational fisheries. This is the largest and most valuable mixed-stock commercial fishery (in terms of economic benefits) in B.C., and yet we give them a pass on how they monitor their impacts on less abundant, threatened, or endangered salmon populations. It’s not like the recreational industry and DFO don’t have the combined capacity to verify retained catch and releases along with stock composition. Washington State does it for a much smaller fishery.
I will provide more details next week.
Greg will be providing weekly fisheries updates, which we will publish here on Fridays. Stay tuned.
