Salmon crisis on West Coast

Sarah Douziech
November 19, 2009
Westerly News

Returns of two West Coast salmon stocks are so low this year, they're headed on the path to extinction, fish counters say.

Numbers of chinook in Clayoquot Sound and sockeye in Kennedy Lake have been seriously declining for the last ten years, but Doug Palfrey, a fish counter contracted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to do counts in both areas, said this year is the worst yet.

"You've got extinction on your doorstep," Palfrey said. "We have almost a total collapse of sockeye this year."

Palfrey, who also runs the Tofino Salmon Enhancement Society, has been doing counts of salmon spawners in the region for over 20 years.

He said the declining sockeye numbers over the last ten years rivals this summer's Fraser River sockeye crisis, percentage-wise.

In 2000, about 30,000 sockeye were counted in the Upper Kennedy River. This year, 2,380 were counted in the same system; nearly a 90 per cent drop in stocks over nine years.

The beach spawning sockeye population in Kennedy Lake (including Clayoquot Arm, Sand River and beaches along the highway) was counted at 125 fish this year, compared to 14,364 in 2000, 11,500 in 2004 and 373 in 2008.

Read the full story in The Westerly.