The return of the Fraser River sockeye

Adams River Sockeye - Bruce Patterson Image

 

It is indeed a testimony to Nature's resilience and unpredictability that Fraser River sockeye have returned some 30 million strong in 2010. 

 

 

However it is important to realize:

  • Most of this year's run of salmon are from a different cycle than the mere 1.5 million that returned last year. This 2010 run includes the dominant year for the Adams River salmon. The Adams River fish are thankfully a Fraser run that comes back in larger numbers every 4 years, unlike endangered stocks such as the sockeye bound for the Cultus and Sakinaw Lakes. For healthy rivers and ecosystems, biodiversity must be preserved.
  • Something devastating did happen to the Fraser River sockeye salmon that were to return in 2009 after they went out to the ocean in 2007. It is essential to try to understand and control what may have impacted their survival and why, with the exception of this year's run, Fraser sockeye returns have been on a steady decline since the early 1990s.  
  • Both last year's Fraser sockeye salmon crash and this year's bonanza were not forecast. Last year, only 10% of the forecast number returned; this year the management prediction was 11.4 million and it appears some 30 million are returning. To quote from a recent Globe and Mail article "The mystery hasn't been solved, it's deepened . . . [indicating] how little Canada really understands about the fish, part of B.C.'s economy and wilderness heritage." 
  • This unpredictability, enormous variability and lack of understanding testify to the need for precaution, to control what can be controlled in a world of increasing threats to this keystone species. Habitat loss, fishing, climate change and sewage discharge are all part of the suite of threats to the salmon, as are the amplification and transmission of parasites and disease from open net-cage salmon farms. These farms are not appropriately nor transparently regulated and it is a critical time to act and provide input on DFO's draft Pacific Aquaculture Regulations.

For news items on the 2010 return of the Fraser River Sockeye, click here. 

For the Pacific Salmon Commission's science report on the decline:  See Peterman R.M., D. Marmorek, B. Beckman, M. Bradford, N. Mantua, B.E. Riddell, M. Scheuerell, M. Staley, K. Wieckowski, J.R. Winton, C.C. Wood. 2010. Synthesis of evidence from a workshop on the decline of Fraser River sockeye. June 15-17, 2010. A Report to the Pacific Salmon Commission, Vancouver, B.C., 123 pp. + 35 pp. of appendices. 

 Adams River Sockeye image by Bruce Paterson.