Process is the Product, by Bob Hooton
October 11, 2018 is a date to remember. It saw two separate initiatives, or at least their status, trumpeted by yet another Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and a supporting cast to a sympathetic audience of fellow politicians and high ranking bureaucrats. It seems the news media were less than interested given the absence of coverage this carefully orchestrated event garnered. Of course, DFO’s Face Book page ensured the rest of us were afforded an opportunity to hear Minister Wilkinson hold forth.
Right on the heels of Minister Wilkinson’s session came the release of “Options for a Made-in BC Wild Salmon Strategy”, from the BC Wild Salmon Advisory Council (WSAC). For background on the origin of that report, please refer to my earlier post Kickin the Can (June 18). Forgive my bias but this latter report is the one I’ve been most anxious to see because the entire WSAC effort began, as described in my earlier post, with a plea for Premier Horgan et al to address the crisis facing Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead.
Of the two items highlighted by Minister Wilkinson under the mantra of “The Year of the Salmon”, the agenda for multi-national collaborative efforts to address high seas circumstances is laudable. Who opposes better information to guide management decisions in the future? Details to follow, I’m sure, but the concept is certainly reasonable. Lets see where we’re at the conclusion of the year before passing judgement on the worth of the investment (whatever that turns out to be). Hopefully the science community will be more results oriented than the politicians and their fishery managers.
The other announcement from the Minister was the Wild Salmon Policy implementation. For those who don’t know or may have forgotten, the WSP was many years in preparation before it was finally released in 2005. It languished in obscurity before DFO began a two year process to develop a plan to implement its plan 13 years later. How many Ministers has that time frame seen come and go? What did the plan do to address the steady decline in salmon (and steelhead) abundance throughout most of British Columbia during that time? What is the likelihood it will be any different this time? Who will be around 2, 3, 5 or 10 years hence to be held accountable for the outcome? What was the opportunity cost for the millions of dollars spent on all the processes involved in preparation of the WSP and its implementation plan? What if we had just spent those dollars on buying back commercial fishing licenses and retiring them permanently so that the harvest of salmon that has led us to the present was addressed? How about if we forego some of the process oriented expenditures looming ever larger today and, instead, buy those “Heart of the Fraser” islands otherwise scheduled for gravel extraction?
I’m reminded of the advice of esteemed fisheries scientist and educator Dr. Peter Larkin in the formative years of the Fisheries Resource Enhancement Program that evolved into the Salmon Enhancement Program and, eventually, into the more broadly acceptable
Salmonid Enhancement Program. Dr. Larkin stated DFO should take its $250M enhancement earmarked dollars and buy out the commercial fleet for ten years and then start over. In the early 1970s that would have been possible.
On to that WSAC output. Here is where the level of absurdity reaches new heights. The first half of the report is all about a walk down memory lane and the way life used to be for indigenous people, the commercial fishermen of bygone eras and communities lost and forgotten due to persistent declines in salmon abundance. All fine and romantic but where’s the beef? That would seem to be in the latter half of the report which is dedicated to goals and strategies to guide the future. Forgive the repetitiveness below but I feel compelled to illustrate what I mean by absurd.
The strategies that are listed are exhaustive (28 pages worth) but its the repetitiveness of the language that grabs one’s attention. I find it hard to accept the people involved in endorsing this material think their output is remotely close to a blueprint for even the most minor of work being undertaken out there on the water or land. Some examples cut and pasted (no, I didn’t make these up) from those 28 pages:
- Establish a long term strategic plan with clear objectives and a sustainable approach to investment that clearly identifies the limiting factors for salmon populations………
- Explore the development of new mechanisms designed to increase coordination……….
- Examine investment in projects………….
- Consider greater support…….
- Work closely with license holders……..
- Conduct a review……….
- Evaluate options for salmon enhancement, including considering the potential ecological, economic and social/cultural risks and benefits associated with the broad range of production options available.
- Examine the feasibility……..
- Explore the potential………..
- Consider programs to control the growth of pinniped populations………
- Consider programs to remove and control exotic and invasive species………
- Consider working closely with BC’s Indigenous communities and organizations………..
- Consider contributing financial and technical resources to support monitoring and enforcement efforts…………
- Consider the opportunity to expand existing facilities and to create new facilities with the objective of enhancing wild salmon production……
- Explore ways to support Indigenous communities…………
- Initiate the development of a symbolic representation of the importance of wild salmon to British Columbians………..
- Invest in the active engagement of the public…………..
- Explore models of governance………
- Consider revitalizing and investing in educational curriculums and citizen engagement programming…………
- Examine how best to move to resource decision-making………….
- Determine the best way to reinvest a greater portion of revenues……….
- Increase access for community organizations and local stewardship groups to science, technical resources and local knowledge keepers……
- Explore the development of protocols…….
- Examine the opportunity to re-establish a dedicated group……..
- To the greatest extent possible and by whatever means, work towards enforcing the need for a single vision………..
- Identify and review regulations…………
- Consider ways to provide support and funding for………..
- Review models of collaborative governance……….
- Understand and engage with modern treaty discussions and reconciliation discussions………..
- Work with First Nations and fisheries stakeholders to influence decisions……….
- Work with Indigenous communities and organizations, fishing communities, active commercial and recreational harvesters and experts and stakeholders to develop a comprehensive vision for BC’s fisheries resources……….
- Engage deliberately and urgently with the Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
to advocate for a shared vision for the future of BC’s commercial fishery…….
- Evaluate policies, programs, plans and mechanisms……..
- Develop strategic options for……….
- Work to reduce or eliminate……….
- Explore the potential to develop……….
- Consider the strategic development of………
- Consider providing incentives to……….
- Encourage innovative ways to………..
- Explore means to better integrate………
Enough!!! Dear WSAC, just tell us one significant, measurable item you are proposing and how we can be confident a wild salmon has been saved or its habitat protected and sustained. (The word steelhead appears exactly once in that WSAC output and only in the context of listing the species of “Pacific salmon”.)
Our wild fish are in trouble. We’re surrounded by the evidence. The single, most direct, most obvious measure that is entirely within our control to address declining abundance is harvest management. Yet, none of the three items discussed above, particularly the latter, speaks to that issue in any meaningful way. What hope is there if we continue to invest in process and policy while the status quo prevails on the water? Tweaking license conditions for seiners and gill netters (and never enforcing them), describing times and places in ever more sophisticated announcements on net deployment and blind eye approaches to steadily growing First Nations fisheries under the banner of the UNDRIP and reconciliation is never going to reverse the declines. And that is if climate change and increasingly hostile freshwater and ocean environments don’t continue to reduce the capacity of fish to replace themselves.
Everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die.
