the fisherman, october 19, 1998
No new direction seen in 'Last Call' report
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A new report by the David Suzuki Foundation is calling for fundamental changes to the Pacific salmon fishery. Report author Terry Glavin says that if wild salmon are to survive we all must be prepared to make sweeping changes in the way we do things on the land, in the rivers, and at sea.
His analysis of the problems facing Pacific salmon is hard hitting and multifaceted. But his solutions are narrow and lack detail or
strategy.
Glavin describes how global warming and climate change are causing severe reductions in ocean survival rates for salmon. Warm water in the Fraser River system is increasing stress and disease resulting in major in-river mortality. Habitat destruction from urbanization, logging and hydroelectric development have taken their toll. Over 600 of B.C.'s 9,600 salmon runs are at high risk of extinction, from a variety of causes.
Mixed stock salmon fisheries have hit weaker stocks hard. These problems are compounded by the breakdown in the Pacific Salmon Treaty between Canada and the U.S. Both countries intercept the other's salmon, complicating conservation efforts.
But of all these issues, Glavin poi.its to mixed stock fisheries as the most immediate problem and the most pressing need for change. He maintains that fishing in areas where many homeward-migrating salmon runs mingle and "mix" unavoidably depletes smaller, co-
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Environment
David Lane
migrating salmon populations. This can lead to a crippling decline in the biological diversity of salmon, which he calls "the single, greatest requirement for long-term abundance" of B.C.'s wild salmon.
Predicting run size and run riming in mixed stock fisheries is also a notoriously imprecise science, he says. Managing what fish will be caught and what fish will escape to the spawning grounds becomes an almost impossible expectation.
Glavin's solution is two-fold: first, a major shift is needed towards selective fishing methods that will allow weak salmon stocks to survive. Second, a new agreement must be forged between Canada and the U.S. based on conservation and the public interest.
While these proposals are laudable, they offer a fairly simplistic solution to a complex problem. And since he doesn't offer a strategy for moving the commercial fishing fleet to more selective fishing, or moving Canada and the U.S. towards a new salmon treaty, Glavin doesn't give us any practical tools to build an alliance of forces capable of achieving what we want.
For the existing commercial fishing fleet, for example, huge questions remain as to whether there is a future for the small boat fisherman wantingto become more selective. The Mifflin Plan has boxed in fish boats to confined geographic areas where selective fishing may be very limited. Fishing gear licensing requirements legally prevent any change in gear except for specially approved experimental fisheries. If the future includes fish traps, weirs and fishwheels, as Glavin maintains, how does a northern gillnetter get access to the fishery? If all fisheries are moved to terminal river areas, how does the First Nations commercial fleet in Johnstone Strait fit into the equation?
A further complexity is that, as Glavin admits, some fishing with existing gear is, actually, highly selective, provided there is good monitoring and good in-season management. But each gear and
each area have increasingly limitec options for selective fishing, particularly in years where there is an unusual mixed stock crisis as was the case this season with coho.
Diversifying into other non-salmon fisheries is generally not an option because it requires large sums of capital to buy additional fishing licences, thanks to decades of federal policies that have pigeonholed boats into singular fisheries. How can the average small boat fisherman break out of this straightjacket of restrictions and hope to carve out a livelihood unless the entire structure of commercial fishing licensing is fundamentally reformed?
Should Canada and the U.S. rewrite a Pacific salmon agreement based on conservation principles, protection of biodiversity and better public accountability? Of course this would provide better tools for both countries to manage their salmon resources more sustainably. But what is the hope of writing a new agreement after years or trying to renew the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty to protect and conserve northern boundary salmon stocks have failed to move Alaska ? This summer, with a severe crisis on upper Skeena and upper Thompson coho stocks, neither Washington state nor Alaska were willing to adopt conservation measures similar to those taken by B.C. fishermen.
A new conservation-minded treaty will never come about unless there is strong political leadership at the highest level of all governments involved, and a unified grassroots campaign launched by conservation and fishing groups on both sides of the border. The direction for that is not found in Glavin's report, nor is it clear how such a treaty would look.
Finally, it was disappointing that, although habitat destruction was cited as part of the problem placing Pacific salmon in crisis, Glavin pointedly underplayed its significance and gave no recommendations for habitat protection or renewal. B.C.'s salmon streams have suffered severely from logging, dams, agriculture, pollution and urban growth. Unless harmful development is stopped, this constant erosion of habitat will continue to jeopardize hundreds of salmon runs, particularly those dependent on small streams, the lifeblood of diverse salmon stocks.
Glavin's new report adds to the urgency for change, and points at several key areas where change is needed. But until this vision is broadened and bolstered with some real strategies, the complex mechanisms for change will remain elu-