MP says fishery is a 'catastrophe'

Jennifer Moreau
October 7, 2009
Burnaby Now

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is expecting to meet its conservation targets for sockeye salmon although millions are missing from this year's Fraser River run.

In July, Fisheries and Oceans Canada was forecasting 10.6 million sockeye salmon would return to the Fraser this year. Only 1.37 million returned, and no one knows why exactly.

Theories include sea lice from fish farms, warming waters (which would affect available food for the fish and migratory patterns for their predators) and pollution.

"The management objective for the year was to put the majority of those fish into the system to spawn, and we've met that objective," said Barry Rosenberger, B.C. Interior area director for the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's Pacific region.

The Fraser sockeye fishery has been closed all season apart from test catches and some limited First Nations fishing. That has left 92 per cent of the surviving sockeye free to return to spawn.

Read the full story in Burnaby Now

Read background news stories on the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye.