Fisheries and Oceans Canada has taken the extraordinary measure of shutting down all sports salmon fishing on the Lower Fraser River because of a lower-than-anticipated return of sockeye.
The closure of all recreational fishing for salmon — including Chinook and possibly Chum when they arrive later in the year — is taking place so that sockeye aren’t inadvertently caught while other salmon species are being fished.
Anglers can still fish for trout, steelhead and sturgeon.
The closure was to go into effect one hour after sunset Thursday until further notice. It covers the mouth of the Fraser River to the Alexandra Bridge south of Hell’s Gate in the Interior, a stretch of about 200 kilometres of river.
“Some techniques for recreational fishing are more likely to intercept sockeye than others, but because there’s that possibility, and the numbers are so low (for sockeye), we’ve got to keep our eye on that conservation issue,” Jennifer Nener, Fisheries and Oceans Pacific region salmon director, said Thursday. “Really, there’s no room for further impacts at this time.”
Nener said the priority is to conserve as many sockeye as possible so they can return to the spawning ground to give a chance for the stock to rebound in four years.
Nener noted that they took the step of closing all recreational salmon fishing on the Lower Fraser in 2013 as well, that time because of high water temperatures that can stress salmon on the way to their spawning grounds. One small piece of good news this season is that river temperatures aren’t too high and water levels are not too low, she said.
Commercial and sports fishing for sockeye in the ocean had already been closed.
There has been a limited aboriginal ceremonial and food fishery this year, about 100,000 fish of the one-million-plus salmon First Nations could take in a normal year, noted Nener.
This year, in the four-year sockeye cycle, is normally a low year for sockeye, but the 2016 forecast of 2.27 million was lower than the average of 3.9 million over the past half century. As fish returned this year, the numbers got worse.
Maybe next year we will have a where-are-the-salmon festival. – Maureen LeBourdais, Horsefly River Roundtable
Although there is still a late run of sockeye that can last into September, the Canada-U. S. Pacific Salmon Commission is estimating that total returns could be about one million. If that happens, it would make the sockeye return one of the lowest in the past century. Only in 1918 and 1943 have the returns been lower, said John Field, executive secretary of the commission headquartered in Vancouver.
However, the sockeye return picture in the past century is a complex one with runs slowly recovering in the 1970s and ’80s from a catastrophic Hell’s Gate slide in 1914, before starting to decline in the ’90s, said Field.
Recently, scientists have been concerned that juvenile salmon have not been surviving during their return to the ocean, possibly from warming waters and increased predation, including from sharks. Salmon farms and disease transmission are also a hot point of debate. Research by universities, Fisheries and Oceans and the Pacific Salmon Commission is underway to determine the reasons for the decline.
However, B.C. Wildlife Federation spokesman Jesse Zeman said more resources need to be targeted at finding answers and putting fisheries staff on the ground, as well as on restoring habitat and increasing hatcheries downsized significantly in the 1980s.
“We need to start putting fish in the river,” said Zeman, whose organization represents recreational fishers and hunters.
Zeman stressed it isn’t only sockeye salmon that are declining on the Fraser for the past decade, but also other species such as Chinook. Coho salmon have been on a decline for two decades, he said.
Cheam First Nation Chief Ernie Cray said the Pacific Salmon Commission should be shutting down their test fishery — which has caught about 10,000 sockeye — that is used to help determine returns. The low returns are having effects upstream as well.
Horsefly has cancelled its annual salmon festival scheduled for September.
“Maybe next year we will have a where-are-the-salmon festival,” said Maureen LeBourdais, chairwoman of the Horsefly River Roundtable, the environmental stewardship group that organizes the event.
