FULL STOP TO ALL NON-SELECTIVE FISHERIES ONLY WAY TO SAVE WILD COHO
A Beefed-Up Department of Fisheries Enforcement Effort Only Way to Ensure Compliance with Drastic Conservation Measures
On May 21, 1998 Federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson made an historic, far- reaching decision. He put conservation first for BC's endangered coho salmon, announcing that 1998 fisheries would be based on "zero fishing mortality for upper Skeena and Thompson coho stocks" (where the coho are most endangered). Other fishing will be allowed only where "coho bycatch mortality will be minimal."
Anderson's decision was necessary because BC's coho are on the brink of extinction. Even with no fishing in 1998 some runs will likely go extinct. Unfortunately, in the past, the massive fishery closures needed to keep stocks from going extinct were considered to be "too drastic" by career-conscious politicians and senior Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) bureaucrats.
Our Pacific fisheries have in fact been so badly managed by the federal DFO that many stocks of wild fish have already been lost forever. A study by the American Fisheries Society identified that 142 stocks of Pacific salmon have already gone extinct and another 624 stocks are at "high risk"-in danger of going extinct
Complicating current fisheries management is the great mystery of what has happened to salmon out in the ocean--including such factors as El Nino. The ocean survival rate of coho has dropped from about 13 percent in the 1980s to two percent now.
The results of some sport fishery surveys in the Georgia Strait area are even more stark, with average coho catch totals dropping from many thousands just a few years ago to only dozens of fish in 1997.
Despite the grim coho statistics, a few scientists and some bureaucrats in the politically directed DFO still favour allowing a sports fishery for hatchery- marked (adipose fin clipped off) coho instead of a complete coho fishing ban in 1998. Thankfully, Minister Anderson nixed that idea.
But a sound fishing strategy for 1998 to meet Minister Anderson's coho conservation objectives has still to be developed and adopted. We should be wary that some fishers will likely forward proposals for "selective" seine and gillnet fisheries based on observer programs and live-release measures. Experience has shown that these measures are poorly controlled and ineffective in stopping coho mortalities.
The only logical, long-range commercial fishing plan with any real hope for salmon survival necessitates a drastic increase in the number of fish allowed to return to spawn. This means moving from current non-selective open-ocean fishing methods to selective terminal fisheries. Currently an average of 70 percent of all salmon caught annually are caught on the high seas. In the future only 25-30 percent should be caught in the open ocean...and caught as selectively as possible.
The rest of the fish caught should be taken in terminal fisheries. These alternative fishing methods include river mouth trapping systems that could be completely selective and guarantee each species' escapement for spawning. Minister Anderson's announcement opens the door to such a fundamental shift in fisheries methods.
But there is a great deal of fear and suspicion that the powerful DFO, with its abysmal record in management and its tragic failure to save the cod fishery of the East Coast, may repeat its errors here. Scary rumours are also circulating that some commercial fishing companies actually want to be rid of the coho (and some other species like steelhead) so that a simplified industry could be based on ever-larger runs of industrially-valuable sockeye.
"...as the BC coho teeters on the brink of extinction, the killing must be stopped before it is too late."
DFO's 1998 fishing plan cannot be a compromise. It must truly deliver on Minister Anderson's promise of "zero fishing mortality" of the critically endangered stocks.
How do we achieve this? The Western Canada Wilderness Committee and The Fish for Life Foundation believe that the pressing need is to put in place a 1998 plan which prioritizes saving the coho and all other endangered stocks. The plan can allow very limited fishing for other salmon to continue.
DFO must also see that their refusal to adequately fund an effective monitoring and observer program would be false economy of the worst kind. How much has the inadequate monitoring and management and consequent collapse of the Eastern cod fishery cost the Canadian taxpayers--to say nothing of the suffering of the people of the Maritimes?
