Not that many politicians in Ottawa have the West Coast salmon fishery atop their priority lists, but some attention paid to its current challenges and long-term future would be appreciated.
The federal government’s decision to shut down B.C.’s open-net salmon farm industry starting with 19 in the Discovery Islands area will largely eliminate another West Coast marine resource enterprise as Mowi Canada West’s recent decision to close its Surrey fish processing plant illustrates.
Meanwhile, fish boat owners and crew will be alarmed to find that their lunch is increasingly being eaten by American competitors.
Most knew that was the case anyway, but a report released in January provides updated documentation of how big a bite U.S. fishermen are taking out of that lunch.
Commissioned by the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and the Skeena Wild Conservation Trust, Alaska Interceptions of B.C. Salmon notes that Alaska is taking a rapidly rising share of salmon bound for B.C. rivers.
B.C. fishermen will know that there were virtually no commercial salmon openings along the province’s coast last summer as sockeye and other once abundant salmon runs hit record lows.
They might not know, however, that while their boats were tied up at docks up and down the coast, the Alaskan fleet logged more than 3,000 boat-days and, according to the Alaska Interceptions report, harvested almost 800,000 sockeye “most of which were of Canadian origin.”
Large numbers of chinook and coho were also taken in the fishery, which is concentrated on the outer coast of the Alaska panhandle and catches salmon bound for streams and rivers in B.C. and Washington and Oregon states.
Unchecked and unchallenged by Canada, the fishery undermines efforts to rebuild B.C.’s wild salmon populations.
The province needs Pacific Salmon Treaty help from the federal government to at least limit this plunder of West Coast marine resources.
Without that help, Ottawa’s Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative is just more empty political posturing.
