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http://www.timescolonist.com/columnists/Endless+cycle+Fraser+salmon+inquiries/2606147/story.html
Endless cycle of Fraser salmon inquiries
By Les Leyne, Times Colonist February 23, 2010
Justice Bruce Cohen is all lawyered up and ready to embark on his quest for millions of missing Fraser River sockeye salmon.
The story so far has the makings of an intriguing mystery. The experts estimated 10 million salmon would be heading for the river system last year, but only about a million showed up.
That prompted the fishery's closure for the third straight year.
For all the finger pointing and controversy over the collapse, nobody really knows exactly why it happened. Since most of the arguments centre around the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the federal government's response last November was to strike an inquiry commission to find out what happened to the salmon.
Cohen was named commissioner and given 18 months to solve the mystery. (He has to file an interim report by Aug. 1.) He has since retained four commission counsels, a policy counsel and four junior counsels. They'll be announcing a work plan shortly. (The commission was instructed not to hold hearings during the Olympic and Paralympic Games to avoid inconveniencing witnesses.)
So far the storyline is a familiar one for most Canadians. A problem emerges. Perplexed government orders inquiry. Wise men gather to ponder the issue. Citizens await their deliberations.
But what's striking is that this is the fifth time in 18 years some kind of urgent study has been commissioned by the government in response to a salmon emergency.
Not only that, it's the fifth study of one specific run: The Fraser sockeye.
That's a remarkable number of studies into the same problem.
- In 1992 about a half-million sockeye disappeared en route to Fraser spawning grounds. Then fisheries minister John Crosbie named two eminent scientists to investigate.
- In 1994, 1.3 million sockeye went missing. Then minister Brian Tobin appointed a panel to investigate and make recommendations.
- In 2002, sockeye conservation was challenged by a threefold increase in estimates of abundance, uncertainty over mortality rates and a huge fight over allocation. Then minister Robert Thibault named a panel to investigate and make recommendations.
- In 2004, 1.3 million sockeye went missing again, so then minister Gerald Regan named former judge Bryan Williams to head an investigatory panel.
Williams was struck by how much time has been spent investigating the problem. "The rather disturbing frequency of Fraser sockeye management reviews prompts numerous questions. Perhaps the most obvious one.... Why so many?"
There's no quick answer. But there have been so many studies over the years that a significant amount of Williams's time was spent just reviewing the previous studies.
One of the reasons he cited for the repeated studies was that the Fisheries Department is "slavishly linked" to a repetitious cycle of "crisis-outcry-review-recommend-repeat."
Eventually he more or less threw up his hands. His review concluded that warmer water temperatures were an important factor, but the rest of the mortality issue was clouded by the lack of accurate numbers. His experts couldn't determine how many fish died because of warmer water and how many because of legal and illegal fishing.
The fact they were left "with no idea" was a clear demonstration of the need for better management, he said.
The previous studies have collectively issued dozens of recommendations on how to address the sockeye problem. But here we are again, embarking on another inquiry into missing fish.
The commission is empowered to consider the policies and practices of DFO, investigate all the usual suspicions as to cause and make "independent findings" based partly on all the previous inquiries.
And naturally there will be another load of recommendations.
There's one item in the terms of reference that makes you wonder. Inquiry commissions rarely set out to assess blame. But the Cohen Commission is expressly barred from doing so. It must operate "without seeking to find fault on the part of any individual, community or organization."
Just So You Know: One of my first jobs on this newspaper years ago was to cover hearings of Peter Pearse's royal commission into the fishing industry, where the phrase "too many boats chasing too few fish" gained currency. Substitute "inquiries" for "boats" and you're right up to date.
lleyne@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/column...on+inquiries/2606147/story.html#ixzz0gRg4WJt4
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Endless cycle of Fraser salmon inquiries
By Les Leyne, Times Colonist February 23, 2010
Justice Bruce Cohen is all lawyered up and ready to embark on his quest for millions of missing Fraser River sockeye salmon.
The story so far has the makings of an intriguing mystery. The experts estimated 10 million salmon would be heading for the river system last year, but only about a million showed up.
That prompted the fishery's closure for the third straight year.
For all the finger pointing and controversy over the collapse, nobody really knows exactly why it happened. Since most of the arguments centre around the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the federal government's response last November was to strike an inquiry commission to find out what happened to the salmon.
Cohen was named commissioner and given 18 months to solve the mystery. (He has to file an interim report by Aug. 1.) He has since retained four commission counsels, a policy counsel and four junior counsels. They'll be announcing a work plan shortly. (The commission was instructed not to hold hearings during the Olympic and Paralympic Games to avoid inconveniencing witnesses.)
So far the storyline is a familiar one for most Canadians. A problem emerges. Perplexed government orders inquiry. Wise men gather to ponder the issue. Citizens await their deliberations.
But what's striking is that this is the fifth time in 18 years some kind of urgent study has been commissioned by the government in response to a salmon emergency.
Not only that, it's the fifth study of one specific run: The Fraser sockeye.
That's a remarkable number of studies into the same problem.
- In 1992 about a half-million sockeye disappeared en route to Fraser spawning grounds. Then fisheries minister John Crosbie named two eminent scientists to investigate.
- In 1994, 1.3 million sockeye went missing. Then minister Brian Tobin appointed a panel to investigate and make recommendations.
- In 2002, sockeye conservation was challenged by a threefold increase in estimates of abundance, uncertainty over mortality rates and a huge fight over allocation. Then minister Robert Thibault named a panel to investigate and make recommendations.
- In 2004, 1.3 million sockeye went missing again, so then minister Gerald Regan named former judge Bryan Williams to head an investigatory panel.
Williams was struck by how much time has been spent investigating the problem. "The rather disturbing frequency of Fraser sockeye management reviews prompts numerous questions. Perhaps the most obvious one.... Why so many?"
There's no quick answer. But there have been so many studies over the years that a significant amount of Williams's time was spent just reviewing the previous studies.
One of the reasons he cited for the repeated studies was that the Fisheries Department is "slavishly linked" to a repetitious cycle of "crisis-outcry-review-recommend-repeat."
Eventually he more or less threw up his hands. His review concluded that warmer water temperatures were an important factor, but the rest of the mortality issue was clouded by the lack of accurate numbers. His experts couldn't determine how many fish died because of warmer water and how many because of legal and illegal fishing.
The fact they were left "with no idea" was a clear demonstration of the need for better management, he said.
The previous studies have collectively issued dozens of recommendations on how to address the sockeye problem. But here we are again, embarking on another inquiry into missing fish.
The commission is empowered to consider the policies and practices of DFO, investigate all the usual suspicions as to cause and make "independent findings" based partly on all the previous inquiries.
And naturally there will be another load of recommendations.
There's one item in the terms of reference that makes you wonder. Inquiry commissions rarely set out to assess blame. But the Cohen Commission is expressly barred from doing so. It must operate "without seeking to find fault on the part of any individual, community or organization."
Just So You Know: One of my first jobs on this newspaper years ago was to cover hearings of Peter Pearse's royal commission into the fishing industry, where the phrase "too many boats chasing too few fish" gained currency. Substitute "inquiries" for "boats" and you're right up to date.
lleyne@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/column...on+inquiries/2606147/story.html#ixzz0gRg4WJt4
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
