As British Columbians were becoming increasingly aware of declining sockeye salmon stocks, 2010 ended the trend with the inundation of the Fraser River in what Mark Hume of The Globe and Mail described as “the biggest sockeye salmon run in nearly 100 years.”
The salmon issue, while having become highly political over the past few years, is essentially about fish farms and their relation to sockeye and the overall health and vitality of these Fraser River resources. Salmon farming and sea lice, in addition to climate change, are possible causes of the previously declining stocks. Prime Minister Harper last year described it as “a serious matter.”
After three consecutive years of closed fisheries in British Columbia, a federal inquiry into sockeye salmon stock declines was commissioned by the federal government in November of 2009. Under BC Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, the Cohen Inquiry is meant to identify the reasons for the decline, make long term projections and determine the necessary policy direction to ensure salmon sustainability.
Then, approximately 34.5 million sockeye returned to their spawning ground for this year’s run. A significant advantage though this may be, there is frustration amongst a wide cross section of the fishery community, concerned with DFO’s (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) lack of capacity to accurately predict salmon returns. Pending the final report, a movement to protect natural resources in BC has begun. Alexandra Morton, a known voice on salmon issues, led the “Get Out Migration” from the Ahta River to Victoria in April, calling for Norwegian salmon farming companies to ‘get out’ of the region, or move to closed containment.
“Government is allowing Norwegian salmon farmers to continue denying even the most basic issues, like sea lice and ISA virus introduction,” said Morton. “If we let this play out, our wild fish simply will not survive.”
While a federal inquiry has been indentified as long overdue and essential to BC’s salmon sustainability, thorough support for the process is distinctly sparse. In this battle over BC salmon, the very nature of the Cohen Inquiry is being challenged by the broader community. Rafe Mair, BC minister of environment from 1978-79, has suggested that the inquiries are politically motivated.
“….while the Commissioner Bruce Cohen may not be political, his boss, Stephen Harper—a man whose only demonstrated interest in the environment has been to let corporate friends destroy it—sure as hell is,” said Mair in a column last month.
Criticism is coming from those who are not convinced about the validity of the Cohen Inquiry, given some appointed members of the Commission.
“Cohen ought instinctively to know that a full-fledged judicial inquiry into the department’s management of the salmon fishery should not, indeed must not, employ people who had in any way advised the department or those who had relied on departmental funding for their work,” wrote John Cummings, MP, Delta-Richmond East, in a press release.
Public forums have been taking place since August 2010, having featured conflict from commercial fishers to salmon activists. Following the Forum in New Westminster September 20, Don Staniford of Salmon First said, “There’s no need to wait until the Cohen Commission’s report in May 2011. We must remove open net cages from BC waters now. Taking immediate action to get disease-ridden Norwegian-owned salmon farms out of the path of migrating wild salmon is an easy first step to putting wild salmon first.”
The co-founder of Greenpeace International, Rod Marining, also went on record to explain his view that with the loss of smolts, one farmed Atlantic Salmon costs $650,000 to produce and that much political willpower is needed to shut down coastal salmon farms. The last public forum is in Kamloops on October 21. Cohen’s final report is to be released in the spring of 2011.
(+6 rating, 3 votes)
Loading ...
