Over the past 30 years or so, come October, I have made my way to the Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park to witness the age-old ritual of sockeye salmon returning to their spawning grounds along the Adams River.
The Adams sockeye run has long been touted as the largest salmon run in North America, if not the world; it is certainly world renowned.
However, things have changed greatly over those 30 years, especially for the sockeye salmon.
In recent years there have been fewer and fewer returning salmon. Where there were once pools containing thousands of bright red salmon, there are now scattered pools containing a few hundred, sometimes a few dozen. The situation has become grim indeed.
So much so that back in 2009, when sockeye returns were disturbingly low, the federal government created a public inquiry (the Cohen Commission) to determine just exactly what was happening to all the disappearing sockeye salmon. Justice Bruce Cohen spent three years gathering testimony from the public, scientists and First Nations to put together a three-volume report of more than 1,000 pages. The Commission’s Final Report: The Uncertain Future of the Fraser River Sockeye, was heralded at the time as being “a blueprint for salmon conservation.”
The report made 75 recommendations. It was tabled in the House of Commons on Oct. 31, 2012. Since then, we (the public) have seen or heard very little about which, if any of the recommendations have actually been put in place by either the previous or current federal governments.
For years the federal government simply stood by and watched as sockeye salmon numbers steadily declined.
What we need now, more than ever, is for the federal government to put their money ($2.64 million in taxpayer dollars) where their mouth is.
At a recent press conference (June 20 in Vancouver), a panel of research scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada said that 2014 and 2015 had seen the warmest water temperatures ever recorded in the northeast Pacific, and these warmer temperatures have compromised the regular food supply Pacific salmon rely on, which in turn has led to smaller and less healthy fish. They also stated the warmer temperatures have brought more predators (such as mackerel and sharks) into coastal waters which prey on both adolescent and mature fish. The panel went on to say that warm weather temperatures are also having an effect on inland freshwater ecosystems where salmon migrate and spawn. Juvenile salmon spend more than a year in these waters and will be stressed, as will adult fish returning to spawn.
“Salmon have very complex life cycles” says Dr. Ian Perry, a research scientist with FOC’s Ocean Sciences division. “The ocean conditions that are important are not just last year’s conditions, but in some cases, the ocean conditions three or four years ago. Over the past few years we’ve had some very different and unusual conditions in the ocean.”
According to an FOC spokesperson, serious problems begin when river water temperatures reach 20 degrees or higher. Warmer waters carry less oxygen and fish need more oxygen as waters heat up. Temperatures in some waterways have already reached 19 degrees. FOC area resources (Kamloops) director Stu Cartwright said “important salmon-bearing rivers such as the Fraser, Thompson and Nicola are all being effected.”
There never seems to be an end to bad news when it comes the survival of the sockeye and detrimental effects on other species of salmon.
The next time that I am standing on the banks of the Adams River, looking down into its waters, I would like to think there will still be salmon swimming through on their way to spawn.
I only hope things can change for the better when it comes to the sockeye salmon.