The Fraser River has problems.... Seems some are now recognizing that its a Fraser River problem and not an ocean or coastal one.
The Nahatlatch River Only 8 Chinook spawners this year. Most Chinook stocks on the Fraser wont make escapements and most are less than the parent broods.
Even the South Thompson chinook that has been a pretty big success may not even make 40K out of a Parent brood of 84K.
S. Thompson 4-1 summers • Surveys and m/r’s (Mid and Lower Shuswap) underway; mixed returns so far and early indications point to returns at about 1/2 - 2/3 brood. Reduced size apparent too. • Mid Shuswap appears poor (~1,200 from 2,200 in parent brood, plus hatchery smolts). Lower Shuswap might make 13,000, which is similar to last year but not even half of the parent escapements (~44,000). Adams appears to be about 60% of brood (3,300 from 5,300). • Preliminary estimates for the South Thompson of 18k and Little River 6k so Summer 4-1’s not looking encouraging either. BY for S.Thompson of 29k and Little River of 3.4k • Aggregate total unlikely to exceed 40K (Brood = 84K)
Your looking in the wrong place - its not the nets. Pinnipeds.
Maybe the Fraser runs are being effected by this practise.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...natural-wildfire-defence-every-year-1.4907358 and this https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/monsanto-roundup-health-canada-1.4896311Reason why people are saying its a Fraser problem and not a coastal or ocean one
Capilano chinook returns are this year are above their 5 year average. Capilano uses brood from the Chilliwack hatchery and are harrison white chinooks. Harrison white wild chinook returns this year have crashed. Same stock, Same ocean, only difference one returns to the Cap and one returns to the harrison.
Also the Harrison stock spend its time in the same areas in the SOG as Cowichan chinook that are seeing great returns.
All they were asking was is for DFO to look into why fraser stocks are crashing but others are performing better. Its looking less and less like marine survival is the issue with Fraser Chinook. Yes it is an issue coast wide but it alone is not causing some of these huge crashes in Fraser Stocks.
As far is this point goes
1) Switching to selective and sustainable fishing methodology
DFO actually said that for FSC First Nations have the right to choose any harvest method they like. So for that option to change they will have to volunteer to change. Definitely an option tho for commercial fisheries and an option for FSC on a agreement basis. There is already quite a few First Nations using selective harvest in some fisheries.
Pinnipeds are a huge problem tho
I can tell you how many years because in the early 1980's they had a commercial net fishing ban as well as no fishing to protect the coho and we went from basically no pinks in the Kitimat river to well over a million, few chum to hundreds of thousands and chinook improved from 10,000 to over 100,000 all in three years. Yes the net fishery is the biggest contributor to poor fish stock returns but not the only.Riddle me this...how many years will it take for removing nets before we see a recovery, as compared to addressing problem pinnipeds that are consuming upward of 64% of all out-migrant chinook smolts, and even more IFS (Steelhead). Putting all our effort into addressing nets is a crazy game. There's a complex series of issues impacting recovery - the CSAS paper addresses them. The reason I can't agree with the singular focused ban the nets approach is I see this as a complicated set of problems, and therefore a multi-faceted set of solutions is required - not a simplistic view that a whole new world order can be achieved by removing nets alone.
Its going to require a lot of tactics...some like:
1) Switching to selective and sustainable fishing methodology
2) Increasing targeted enhancement on specific stocks of concern
3) Addressing problem pinnipeds
4) Improving specific habitat to increase the freshwater productivity
5) Addressing pollution - un-treated sewage outfall discharge in the Fraser Estuary
Lots of scientific support for addressing the impacts of pinniped. Also hearing there will be $$ investment to bring about science based Hatchery programs to help provide a temporary enhancement lift for Steelhead on the Thompson. Slowly chipping away at some of the factors limiting steelhead recovery. Selective harvest is another strategy being explored.