Sockeye fishery may be a flop
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Updated: August 13, 2009 1:16 PM
Commercial fishing for Fraser River sockeye salmon may be a washout for a third straight year.
The Pacific Salmon Commission said Friday the main summer run appears to be "considerably" below the forecast levels and "less than those needed to provide harvestable surpluses."
Hopes had been high for a relatively decent return of more than 10 million sockeye this summer, after two disappointing seasons when fewer than two million fish returned and virtually no fishing was allowed.
With a third failed season starting to take shape, commission biologists are struggling to provide an explanation.
The forecast of how many sockeye would come back is based on the estimated number of juveniles that hatched and went out to sea after the previous spawning cycle four years ago.
But those projections assume juveniles heading downriver and then spending time in the ocean will survive in the same proportions that they have historically.
That may have been a poor assumption.
The commission says the low numbers of fish being detected so far suggest "most Fraser sockeye stocks have experienced much poorer than average survival during their freshwater and/or marine life cycle stages."
In one good sign for returning salmon, the temperature of the Fraser has eased below 20 degrees – warmer water than that can be deadly.
A large number of less lucrative pink salmon are also expected to come in this year, but if they do arrive, any fishery targeting them may need to be limited to avoid an unintended bycatch of late-run sockeye.
So far 37,000 sockeye have been caught in a combination in test fisheries and by aboriginal fishers for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
While no commercial fishing of sockeye is expected, aboriginal groups have called for a halt to sports fishing as well to ensure anglers don't catch sockeye while targeting other species.
That would be an overreaction, said Vic Carrao, president of the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association.
He said 2004 statistics show recreational fishers caught just 1.4 per cent of sockeye compared to 21.8 per cent for FIrst Nations and 25.7 per cent for the commercial fleet.
"Shutting down the river to all fishing is not only unnecessary from a conservation perspective, it will decimate a local tourist economy at a time that it is barely holding its head above water," Carrao said.
He said guides are deeply concerned about the poor returns.
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