Fraser River Sockeye Update from PSC

High Time said:
No fish farms in Alaska... All the runs on the Fraser were increasing through the 80's. Not just the Adams.There were other systems that were returning over 20 million sockeye. And then the fish farms came in,and now virtually all the smolts of the Fraser stocks have to run the gauntlet of Johnstone Straights on their out migration,with over a 100 fish farms spewing their effluent and disease into the inlets and channels emptying into the Straits.As the runs declined,catches were reduced in an attempt to maintain the escapements. Fish were put on the spawning grounds, fry were produced, smolts out migrated the Fraser, and adults didn't return. You figure it out....
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But lots of Salmon Ranching! I guess a question that needs to be answered is if our neighbours ranching is affecting our wild stock? I'm no expert on salmon migration and I'm lead to believe no one else claims to be. So what if the millions upon millions of ranched salmon that are imprinted to return to Alaska are foraging in direct competition with our wild stock?

If this isn't the case and ranching's the answer,then maybe we should turn our fish farms into ranches. Sadly I believe that neither option is the answer, but we dwell on one and ignore the other.
 
After following the PSC test fishing at Port Refrew and at Blinkhorn at the top of Johnstone Straits for the last couple weeks, it's starting to look like about 90% of the Fraser Sockeye and Pinks are coming down the Straits.
Obviously no sockeye for almost everyone.... because of the disastrously low return,but it looks like a rerun of the last Fraser Pink migration which did the same thing. Not good news for those of us on the Juan de Fuca route.
 
Whitebuck said:
http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fraserriver/firstnations/HTMLs/CommunalOpeningTimes.html
Here some more openings on the Fraser to help the last of the Sockeye.
Fish farms do play a part in the problem, however pretty weird how the sockeye stocks below Chilliwack are still in good and stable condition. Wonder what could be happening to those stocks when they migrate above Chilliwack to Yale.
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Sockeye are prone to pick up the fish Aids virus, ISA. It does not kill the fish, but causes exhaustion and weakens the heart, therefore the fish aren't as strong anymore to get passed Hells gate and the rougher waters.
 
Those fish have to first make from the mouth to past Yale, doesn't matter about a virus if the majority of the fish are netted before that. Making it to Hells Gate? Those fish have wiped out long before that in legal and illegal FN netting !!
 
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Whitebuck said:
http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fraserriver/firstnations/HTMLs/CommunalOpeningTimes.html
Here some more openings on the Fraser to help the last of the Sockeye.
Fish farms do play a part in the problem, however pretty weird how the sockeye stocks below Chilliwack are still in good and stable condition. Wonder what could be happening to those stocks when they migrate above Chilliwack to Yale.
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When I click on your link all the openings are for the Squamish and not the Fraser?
 
Whitebuck said:
Those fish have to first make from the mouth to past Yale, doesn't matter about a virus if the majority of the fish are netted before that. Making it to Hells Gate? Those fish have wiped out long before that in legal and illegal FN netting !!
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state facts before being racist
 
Reel Time said:
state facts before being racist
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Facts like the sockeye count at the Mission hydro-acoustic station versus the sockeye count on the spawning grounds?
Or facts like the only fishing/harvesting/removal happening upstream of Mission Bridge is FN?

Here is the number of fish going past the Mission hydro-acoustic station:
http://www.psc.org/publications/fra...droacoustic-counting-station-near-mission-bc/

My google-fu is not up to the task today, but there should be some spawning ground carcass counts available.
The Mission carcass count is not reliable since it only happens during daylight hours.

Bottom line is that to pretend that FN do not have a significant impact on sockeye and chinook in the Fraser system is wilful blindness.
Ironic that people demanding the solid facts for this claim do not need the same evidence to condemn fish farms or climate change deniers.
 
Right now from from Hope to Boston bar there is nets in every choke point on the Fraser. Just driving through.
Looks like PNE parking along the side of the highway in th canyon with how many FN are netting.
This will absolutely wipe out any sockeye and Chinook that are returning right now.
Truly disgusting.
At least the smoke has cleared....lol
 
Whitebuck said:
Right now from from Hope to Boston bar there is nets in every choke point on the Fraser. Just driving through.
Looks like PNE parking along the side of the highway in th canyon with how many FN are netting.
This will absolutely wipe out any sockeye and Chinook that are returning right now.
Truly disgusting.
At least the smoke has cleared....lol
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Saw a big boat netting the tidal portion uesterday right under the skytrain bridge in New West and a few more below the Port Man.
 
whats going on right now on the Fraser is disgusting! there is absolutely no thought at all about fish stocks or conservation , just pure disgusting greed, thats it! We have have a slot limit on southern Vancouver island to protect Fraser river fish, for what???????? can somebody explain to me ????????? an absolute total f###### joke!!!!! i hope some idiot at DFO reads this and asks himself -what do i actually do at my job????
 
Well I agree FN pursue the sockeye when its in dire stress and should be abandoned. Although, they are not the major contributing factor for overall depletion of stocks
 
Reel Time said:
Well I agree FN pursue the sockeye when its in dire stress and should be abandoned. Although, they are not the major contributing factor for overall depletion of stocks
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Who do you blame them?
 
I grew up in Steveston and previous to everyone bashing FN on here, I witnessed massive commercial fishing from the Strait with boats well up the river close to mission. Yes that was the early 2000's when I last saw such a zoo, but today with limited FN fisheries, its not a major factor, its more of a suppression of poor management now.
Fish farming, commercial harvest, poaching on all ethnic sides, warming waters, high viral incidents, its not likely to get much better.
 
We now have the ISA virus in cultus lake trout, a well known spawning area of sockeye salmon, so anyone can see that if this virus is now from fish farm to fresh water, pretty interesting too.
 
you have brought up some great points, commercial fishing all over has put most salmon stocks at the point they are now, over fishing and this will never end mentality , the beef most people have out there is that we all should be conserving and enhancing all species of salmon out there- fn rec and commercial.The beef with me about FN is that they say they are protecting salmon when they are just taking every fish they get there hands on with no thought about the longterm effect. I v e said it before i m not a racist, just a rec. fisherman who would like to take his son and daughter fishing some day. Catching every fish till there extinct then saying it was our right is a sh###y excuse !!
 
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