Fraser River salmon stocks 'beyond a crisis'
Mark Hume
August 13, 2009
The Globe and Mail
The Fraser River is experiencing one of the biggest salmon disasters in recent history with more than nine million sockeye vanishing.
Aboriginal fish racks are empty, commercial boats worth millions of dollars are tied to the docks and sport anglers are being told to release any sockeye they catch while fishing for still healthy runs of chinook.
Between 10.6 million and 13 million sockeye were expected to return to the Fraser this summer. But the official count is now just 1.7 million, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Where the nine to 11 million missing fish went remains a mystery. "It's beyond a crisis with these latest numbers," said Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser to the Sto:lo tribes on the Fraser. "What it means is that a lot of impoverished natives are going to be without salmon. ... We have families with little or no income that were depending on these fish. ... It's a catastrophe," he said.
Read the full story in The Globe and Mail
Read related stories:
In the Richmond News; August 21, 2009; "Fish farms louse up wild stocks: Biologist DFO denies sea lice from fish farms the cause of declining Fraser River sockeye""
Globe and Mail - "Calls grow for a summit on collapse of Fraser sockeye run"
CBCnews.ca; August 13, 2009; "Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery closed again"
BC Local News.com; August 11, 2009; "Disaster for sockeye as run size cut to tenth of forecast"
TheStraight.com; August 13, 2009; "Fish biologist links fish farms to disappearing Fraser River salmon"
Read further stories on the Fraser River sockeye:
Read the resources materials and scientists' statement related to the December 2009 think tank "Adapting to Change - Managing Fraser sockeye in the face of declining productivity and increasing uncertainty".
Posted August 22nd, 2009
