Warm water partly cause of salmon decline, study finds

Mark Hume
March 30, 2010
The Globe and Mail

The warm temperature of the Fraser River during the summer appears to be playing a key role in the decline of an endangered run of sockeye salmon that spawns in Cultus Lake, according to new research by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

A seven-member team led by Michael Bradford, a DFO ecologist, has found that salmon that spend longer periods in the Fraser during migration have a higher chance of dying from kidney and gill infections caused by parasites.

The findings don’t explain why millions of sockeye salmon failed to return to the Fraser River last year, an issue that is now the focus of a judicial inquiry. But it could prove significant because DFO is struggling to save the Cultus sockeye, a distinct sub-population that has been listed as endangered since 2002.

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