Normally at this time of year, when each morning seems to be a little cooler and there is a hint of frost in the air, when the leaves have begun to turn colour and the geese are starting to make their way south, I have an overwhelming desire to pack up my fishing gear and head to one of several rivers in the Lower mainland to cast a line to sockeye salmon about to make their way inland to the spawning grounds.
With the coming of each new autumn, I always look forward to standing on the banks of a river, breathing in the cool, crisp morning air, looking at all the autumn colours and enjoying the sense of camaraderie that comes with standing and casting a line with fellow anglers – especially on those times when I have been fortunate enough to have a fish on. It’s as though time stands still and everything else disappears. All I have to care about is the moment, just me and the fish – the age-old eternal struggle of predator and prey.
Over the years I’ve also been able to rationalize any lack of success in catching a salmon by telling myself that each cast made without a strike, was but a prelude to the moment when I would feel that sudden, heart stopping bump on the end of my line. However, more and more in recent years, salmon fishing has become a hit-and-miss proposition at best. The salmon have simply not been there to catch and this year, it would seem things are worse than ever before.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has stated this year there will be no commercial or recreational sockeye fisheries on the Fraser River and marine areas, and only an aboriginal fishery will be permitted. The Pacific Salmon Commission recently downgraded the main summer run from a pre-season forecast of 1.67 million to an estimated 992,000 fish. Granted, this is not a ‘major’ year for the sockeye runs, but still, we are talking low numbers like never before. It wasn’t that long ago that the continued steady decline in numbers of fish returning prompted some to speculate about the possible disappearance of the sockeye runs altogether. In 2009, sockeye returns were so disturbing the federal government created a public inquiry (the Cohen Commission) to determine what was happening to all the disappearing sockeye salmon. The commission took three years to complete at a cost of more than $26 million. It entailed some 892 public submissions, 138 days of hearings with 180 witnesses. In the end, it came up with 75 recommendations. That was how many years ago?
Since then, I’ve heard very little about which, if any, of the recommendations put forward by the Cohen Commission have ever been successfully put in place – by either the former Conservative federal government or the current Liberal government. All I have heard is the sockeye numbers are in worse shape than ever before and that there will be no sport fishery on the Fraser, which is more than fine with me if it will help to improve the situation. But from what little I understand, it is going to take a whole lot more.
One of the major problems in making any sort of accurate predictions when it comes to numbers of returning sockeye is the fact there is currently no real way to monitor sockeye salmon in the middle of their life cycle – when they are out in the ocean, which is when the survival rates are established. Add to this all the theories about sea lice from fish farms, climatic change, over fishing, poaching and everything else and, well, it really is pretty hard to wrap your mind around the whole mess. But the again, isn’t that what the DFO is paid to do?
It seems to me there are more questions than answers.
The federal government needs to make a concerted and coordinated effort to find out just what is affecting sockeye salmon numbers and implement, sooner than later, a fact-based, scientifically sound initiative to save the sockeye salmon – before the whole question becomes academic.