The most recent Canadian hake fishery data I could find was at this link;
https://fisheries.msc.org/en/fisheries/pacific-hake-mid-water-trawl/@@assessments. Look in Appendix 4 at Table 2 in the most recent assessment report. Looks to me like ~4 metric tonnes of Chinook salmon bycaught in 2017.
The hake fishery has the lion’s share of salmon Bycatch. Salmon bycatch in the bottom contact groundfish trawl is significantly less.
Cheers and have a Happy New Year.
Thanks, yes that was the only information I was able to find and raises concern for me about the quality of our salmon bycatch monitoring program.
From 2014 report:
Other than Chinook Salmon, the catches of the other four species of Pacific salmon are insignificant in the fishery. Chinook salmon make up approximately 93% of the salmon catch by the Canadian hake fishery (Appendix Table 2), typically accounting for less than
9 mt of catch annually. Coho and Chum salmon make up the rest of the salmon catch, typically less than 1/3rd mt annually. Many populations of Chinook Salmon from southern British Columbia, entering the ocean south of Cape Caution, have experienced repeated years of low spawner escapements and there is a high degree of uncertainty about their longer term abundance and productivity. DFO is currently undertaking several initiatives in order to assess the current status of these stocks and to guide the implementation of appropriate actions for their conservation into the future. These actions are within the context of both the Wild Salmon Policy (WSP) and upcoming assessment of status by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), currently scheduled for autumn 2014 (DFO 2013g).
From 2017 report:
Salmon Incidental catch of salmonids continues to be very low in the Canadian mid-water trawl hake fishery, accounting for approximately 0.08% of the weight of hake catch (Appendix 4 Table 2). Chinook Salmon represent 75% (4.24 mt) of this bycatch and Chum 17% (0.94 mt).
So 4.24 mt = 9363 pounds, and at an average weight of 10 pounds that is 936 Chinook adults. 9 mt = 19,842 pounds, at average weight of 10 pounds would be 1,984 fish. I found another reference stating bycatch was as high as 7,000 Chinook, so it appears the monitoring and data is a bit all over the place.
Impacts appear fairly small considering the lack of data. That is also of course assuming the catch is adults and not juveniles. If the catch is juveniles then we are talking about a much larger impact. Seems small, but that reflects only a portion of the actual catch and represents our fleet performance with smaller net openings. The guys I know who fish on Trawlers tell me that their small net openings are easier for salmon to detect and swim out of the way. Interject Super Trawlers with large net openings and the potential impact could be very significant and is essentially unknown.