The Georgia Strait blueback fishery was great. Kicked off about early May and held strong right through June when they started to build some girth. By July they were full-on Cohos and moving around a fair amount.
There's all kinds of reasons for the general decline, but the actual dramatic change was over 1 - 2 years. I recall one season catching perhaps 500 or so (whatever typical daily limits were for my guests for 6-8 weeks guiding in that early season fishery) to the following season catching 8 cohos all year. It was like the tap was simply turned off.
Although there was lots of speculation, noone seemed to have any real idea as to what happened or why. The build ups were apparent: herring stocks gone, early season shrimp blooms gone, cod stocks gone...there is a whole list of stocks that effectively disappeared. I recall perhaps the mid-80's a serious concern over gray algae blooms and it's effects on the stocks - this was overrunning the Strait and apparently choked out oxygen.
Clearly the over-fishing of every marine creature (except seals) in the strait has to have had an impact. Consider everything and anything that you have ever admired on a beach, dug in the sand, viewed down through the water, or caught on your line. It has all been stripped - and along with it all of the feed in the form of eggs, babies, krill (actually they trawled that into oblivian as well), and the rest of what balanced that system was removed through the privatization of your resources. This is the federal DFO.
I've heard that some of the inside river systems still get reasonable returns of cohos in the fall (ie Quinsam, Oyster). Yet the inside coho fishery is flat. Maybe these returns are different strains? Different runs that always went to the outside anyway and unneffected by whatever has taken place on the inside?
Were the Straits Cohos actually a particular strain that is now extinct or do they simply head straight out to the West Coast following new water temperatures? The change was so dramatic and apparently permanent that the real answer is likely shelved somewhere. Maybe its time for a real review for real answers and real solutions.
How many of us recall the Johstone Strait Fall Northern Coho fishery -Holly S**t was that fun. Boatloads of cohos averaging 12lbs, many upwards of 16 to 20+ lbs - daily limits for 4 = 16 cohos per trip. What a blast. That was an amazing fishery. DFO rearranged the seine and gillnet fleet and turned Johnstone into a gut fishery that decimated those runs. Completely wiped out...Maybe it's high time to fire DFO.
I'm not sure I've heard any real answers yet, but would have very serious concern for any remaining cohos or for that matter any resident fish still swimming in the Georgia and Johnstone Straits.