OldBlackDog
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Strait ecosystem holds clues to missing salmon (2:15 pm)
By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Clues to the mystery surrounding the precipitous decline of coho and chinook salmon populations on the South Coast might be uncovered if the fisheries department took a closer look at the Strait of Georgia ecosystem, a salmon advocacy group said today.
The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council said the federal department's conventional method of managing salmon populations is failing for these "severely depleted" species in the strait.
Neither strict fishing restrictions nor hatchery augmentation programs have worked, the council said in a news release.
Instead, the council is urging Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn to consider an "ecosystem approach" that would take into account environmental conditions, threats from predators and even the impact of sewage discharges into the Strait.
Sport fishing catches of coho and chinook, the most popular game fish off the B.C. coast, have dropped about 90 per cent since the late 1980s, according to the B.C. Sport Fishing Institute.
"The inability to reverse these persistent low abundances raises the question of what is wrong with traditional fisheries management regime that is strict but seemingly ineffective in many instances," said PFRCC chair Paul LeBlond in the release.
LeBlond said the fisheries department has in the past "signalled some intention" to adopt an ecosystem approach but hasn't acted.
"The time has come to put that idea into practice," LeBlond said.
© Vancouver Sun 2007
By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Clues to the mystery surrounding the precipitous decline of coho and chinook salmon populations on the South Coast might be uncovered if the fisheries department took a closer look at the Strait of Georgia ecosystem, a salmon advocacy group said today.
The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council said the federal department's conventional method of managing salmon populations is failing for these "severely depleted" species in the strait.
Neither strict fishing restrictions nor hatchery augmentation programs have worked, the council said in a news release.
Instead, the council is urging Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn to consider an "ecosystem approach" that would take into account environmental conditions, threats from predators and even the impact of sewage discharges into the Strait.
Sport fishing catches of coho and chinook, the most popular game fish off the B.C. coast, have dropped about 90 per cent since the late 1980s, according to the B.C. Sport Fishing Institute.
"The inability to reverse these persistent low abundances raises the question of what is wrong with traditional fisheries management regime that is strict but seemingly ineffective in many instances," said PFRCC chair Paul LeBlond in the release.
LeBlond said the fisheries department has in the past "signalled some intention" to adopt an ecosystem approach but hasn't acted.
"The time has come to put that idea into practice," LeBlond said.
© Vancouver Sun 2007
