We’ll need to examine the actual publication, but at first glance this new study demolishes what trust I had that DFO was doing a reasonable job of measuring escapement and managing the catch of B.C. salmon. It seems we should radically adjust how we monitor and manage salmon… perhaps some combination of a coherent, timely test catch program and real-time telemetry of returning adults could enable us to adjust quotas and time openings so that enough salmon are able to make it into the rivers and the stomachs of endangered orcas.
Or maybe we should just stop fishing for Pacific salmon for a decade?! Then at least we could discern whether there is any need to keep suggesting that declines are caused by climate change or ocean conditions, rather than harvest.
Overfishing pushing salmon stocks near collapse, study warns |
December 3, 2008 at 5:13 AM EST |
VANCOUVER — Salmon stocks in British Columbia are on the brink of collapse largely because the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has consistently allowed too many fish to be killed in commercial and recreational fisheries, according to a new research paper. |
The researchers said that based on the monitoring of 137 streams between 2000 and 2005, DFO found 35 per cent of salmon runs in northern B.C. were classified as depressed. But an assessment based on 215 streams that included weak stocks rated 75 per cent of runs as depressed. |
“The lack of information [fisheries managers have] is troubling,” said Misty MacDuffee, one of three biologists on the research team. |
And during the 2000-2005 period, chum, sockeye and chinook runs failed to hit escapement targets up to 85 per cent of the time. |
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