By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun

Alaskan salmon ranches and interception fisheries are damaging B.C.’s wild salmon populations, according to three Canadian conservation groups.

Raincoast Conservation Foundation, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and Watershed Watch Salmon Society said Wednesday they plan to challenge the eco-certification awarded to the Alaskan salmon fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council.

To read the full article, please visit the Vancouver Sun website.

More Fraser sockeye populations in trouble than previously thought

New Fisheries and Oceans report identifies serious state of salmon but offers no solutions

Download the press release and backgrounder as PDF

VANCOUVER – Fraser River sockeye salmon are in worse trouble than previously thought, according to a lengthy draft report by federal fisheries scientists recently entered into evidence at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry. The report examined the current status of 32 genetically distinct populations of Fraser sockeye, also known as “conservation units”. The scientists found that eight populations are already extinct or nearly extinct. Of the 24 remaining populations, at least 7 appear to be below their lower benchmarks for abundance, or in the “red zone”, meaning they may be at risk of extinction, and only 4 were clearly in the “green zone”. The scientists were not able to fully assess four of the stocks due to a lack of data.

Despite the ominous findings in the 181-page report, necessary measures to protect the salmon are not being put in place, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.The groups are calling on Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield to initiate recovery plans for the stocks at risk, as required under the federal government’s Wild Salmon Policy.

“This report is very sobering,” said Watershed Watch biologist Aaron Hill. “For reasons that are still not clear, we were blessed with a banner sockeye return in 2010. But the overall trend is down, and we can’t let healthy returns to just a few Fraser tributaries distract us from the plight that most Fraser sockeye populations are now facing.”

Conservationists are criticizing the report for failing to assign definitive status to the various sockeye populations, even though it shows the sockeye populations to be extinct or deep into the “red zone”. Pacific salmon populations, or “conservation units”, are supposed to be categorized as being in red, yellow or green zones under the Wild Salmon Policy, depending on the health of the stocks. Yet, even though the policy has been public since 2005, not one conservation unit has been categorized.

“The government must get on with developing recovery plans for populations at risk, immediately addressing threats such as overfishing, habitat destruction and open net-cage aquaculture.” said David Suzuki Foundation biologist Jeffery Young. “Fortunately there are workable solutions to these problems, but implementing them will require strong recommendations for the Cohen Commission, and leadership from Ottawa.”

“Maintaining salmon biodiversity by protecting all of these distinct populations is critical to ensuring the long-term viability and productivity of Pacific salmon, as well as reducing the year-to-year variability in returns,” said SkeenaWild executive director Greg Knox, adding, “We must recover salmon populations at risk if we are to improve the sustainability and productivity of salmon fisheries.”

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For more information, contact:

Jodi Garwood, Communications Specialist, David Suzuki Foundation, (604) 732-4228. ext. 1281

Jeffery Young, Aquatic Biologist, David Suzuki Foundation, (604) 764-6142

Aaron Hill, Ecologist, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, (250) 818-0054

Greg Knox, Executive Director, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, (250) 615-1990

Misty MacDuffee, Biologist, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, (250) 818-2136

BACKGROUNDER

Evaluating the status of BC’s wild salmon populations

One of the main objectives of Canada’s Policy for the Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon, released in 2005, is to “safeguard the genetic diversity of wild Pacific salmon”. The policy states that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) “intends to maintain diversity through the protection of ‘Conservation Units’ (CUs).” These are populations of salmon that government scientists have determined are genetically unique and irreplaceable. A smaller CU, such as Pitt River sockeye, may contain dozens of individual spawning populations, while a larger CU, such as Fraser River pink salmon, will contain hundreds. To protect salmon CUs, the Wild Salmon Policy (WSP) requires that they be maintained above a “lower benchmark” – a level of abundance below which a salmon population will require significant management intervention for recovery. The “lower benchmark” is also designed to avoid having CUs listed as threatened or endangered under the Species At Risk Act.

DFO retreats from fully evaluating Fraser sockeye

Six years after the introduction of the Wild Salmon Policy, DFO has not finalized benchmarks or determined the status of a single salmon CU. The first status assessment under the WSP – for Fraser River sockeye salmon – was to be contained in a draft report recently entered into evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River, otherwise known as the Cohen Commission. An earlier draft of the report was titled Fraser Sockeye Wild Salmon Policy Evaluation of Stock Status: State and Rate. However, the report fell short of actually assigning benchmarks and status determinations for Fraser sockeye, a shortcoming that is reflected in the 181-page report’s revised title: Evaluation of Uncertainty in Fraser Sockeye Wild Salmon Policy Status using Abundance and Trends in Abundance Metrics.

Fraser River sockeye salmon

At 240,000 km² the Fraser is B.C.’s largest watershed, draining one quarter of the province, an area the size of California. Despite the damage done by more than a century of overfishing in mixed-stock marine fisheries, the Fraser River is still home to the largest number of distinct sockeye salmon populations (CUs) of any watershed on earth. The sockeye returns are highly variable, with larger returns occurring once every four years. Sockeye returns to the Fraser from 2007-2009 were some of the lowest on record, leading to the formation of the Cohen Commission. In 2010, for reasons that are not yet clear, Fraser River sockeye had their highest return since 1913, prior to which such large returns were routine.

While some Fraser sockeye populations are holding their own – like the Adams River population that made up the bulk of last year’s large return – many others are not. In their 2008 Red-List Report on sockeye salmon, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified various populations of Fraser sockeye as “vulnerable”, “endangered” and “critically endangered”, with a few being of “least concern”.

Despite the large number of Fraser sockeye populations that now appear to be in the “red zone”, only one – Cultus Lake sockeye – has been identified as endangered by the federal government, although it was rejected for legal protection under the Species At Risk Act.

Conservationists are calling on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to immediately complete the urgent task of assigning official red-yellow-green status to all Fraser sockeye populations, so that recovery planning can be initiated for all Fraser sockeye populations in the “red zone”. Recovery plans must identify and mitigate human threats to salmon populations, including overfishing, habitat destruction and fish farms, say scientists with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, David Suzuki Foundation, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

The importance of maintaining diverse and abundant salmon populations

Recovering depleted salmon populations will likely bring economic benefits. A landmark 2010 study by fisheries scientists at the University of Washington showed that in places where managers have maintained a diverse “portfolio” of salmon populations, overall abundance remained high from year to year, resulting in more frequent fishing opportunities and economic stability for the fishing industry. The principle is similar to that of a diverse portfolio of financial investments allowing for stable returns under various economic conditions. Different salmon populations have evolved to thrive under different sets of environmental conditions, so conditions on any given year will favour some populations but not others.

By Misty MacDuffee and Chris Genovali

BC’s coastal grizzlies often have a hard time securing their life requisites, as humans interfere with their day-to-day existence.

Grizzlies face a myriad of threats, from the degradation of their habitat through industrial forestry to their direct killing via trophy hunting. They also face fierce competition for their most important food source, wild salmon, from commercial and sport fisheries. That competition may have gotten more extreme this summer, as BC’s north coast commercial salmon fishermen have discarded over 20 per cent of their catch, including 1.4 million pounds of chum salmon. Many of these fish are from stocks that fisheries scientists have described as “conservation concern.”

Most of the discarded fish are not expected to survive because salmon hauled up in nets and onto decks need careful handling to be released back to the water unharmed. But in competitive fisheries with short time limits, careful release of unwanted salmon puts fishermen at a disadvantage.  This disincentive means tens of thousands of salmon die from stress and injury, losing their one chance to spawn after returning from the Pacific Ocean. One-half of these chum discards (335 metric tons) came from areas in and around the Great Bear Rainforest.

There are several problems with fisheries that discard “bycatch” in the manner described above. The abundance of many stocks of chum salmon on the central and north coast is too low to withstand significant fishing pressure, so there is a conservation concern.  Secondly, the discarded chum could have fed bears, eagles, wolves, and dozens of other wildlife species in our coastal rivers. Specifically, there are growing concerns over the impact that low salmon abundance has on coastal grizzlies, other wildlife that rely on salmon, and the healthy functioning of salmon-dependent ecosystems.

The massive amounts of nutrients and energy that salmon bring back to BC’s watersheds every year can be likened to the wildebeest migrations of the Serengeti.  Similar to their African ungulate counterparts, spawning salmon provide an essential seasonal food to many species.  For coastal grizzlies, the health of individuals, the number of cubs per female, and population densities are all strongly related to the consumption of salmon. Grizzlies have smaller and less frequent litters in lean times. Given that chum used to provide a high percentage of salmon to these bears, its decline could mean fewer bears and less resilient populations over time.

Bears also drive productivity within coastal streams and forests by transferring salmon carcasses from streams to the forest floor.  They are riparian gardeners; providing nutrients and energy to stream bank food webs, including insects, birds, mammals and other fish.  In terms of nutrients, 335 metric tons of discarded chum salmon translates to 9 metric tons of nitrogen and 1 metric ton of phosphorous, 80 per cent of which would have been of delivered by bears.

The economic value of spawning salmon is significant and undeniable. The rising popularity of wildlife ecotourism suggests that salmon may be worth more to coastal economies alive than dead. Wildlife ecotourism has grown impressively in the past 20 years. The number of operations bringing tourists to see BC’s coastal bears has more than quadrupled since the 1990s and local First Nations have been an important component of this growth. However, this promising economic activity requires abundant salmon populations for bears and other wildlife drawn to fall streams.

Changing the way we fish for salmon could significantly reduce impacts to stocks of concern, like chum salmon in the Great Bear Rainforest. This could be achieved by moving fisheries away from “mixed-stock” areas where it is impossible to target strong stocks while avoiding weak ones, by employing proven selective fishing techniques, and by transitioning to quota-based fisheries.

Misty MacDuffee is a biologist with Raincoast Conservation Foundation. Chris Genovali is Raincoast’s executive director.

Island Tides Sept 8, 2011

By Misty MacDuffee and Chris Genovali

click here for the complete Globe and Mail story

Sidney, B.C. – A scientist with Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the University of Victoria, Michael Price, is scheduled to testify at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry Tuesday, September 6, based on a recent study that showed the first link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon.

The article published in February by PLoS ONE titled, Sea Louse Infection of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon in Relation to Marine Salmon Farms on Canada’s West Coast, genetically identified 30 distinct stocks of infected Fraser sockeye that pass by open net-pen salmon farms in the Strait of Georgia, including the endangered Cultus Lake stock. The study found that parasitism of Fraser sockeye increased significantly after the juvenile fish passed by fish farms. These same species of lice were found in substantial numbers on the salmon farms.

Not only did juvenile Fraser sockeye host higher lice levels in the Georgia Strait after they passed salmon farms, these fish hosted an order of magnitude more sea lice than Skeena and Nass River sockeye that migrated along the north coast where there are no farms.

Michael Price, the lead author of the study, will be joined by 3 other researchers on a panel to discuss the threat of sea lice to juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon.

“The implications of these infections are not fully clear, but in addition to any direct physical and behavioural impacts on juvenile sockeye, sea lice may also serve as vectors of disease or indicators of other farm-origin pathogens,” said Price.

Raincoast Conservation Foundation and other researchers also recently published an article in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences titled, Evidence of farm-induced parasite infestations on wild juvenile salmon in multiple regions of coastal British Columbia, Canada, which suggests that salmon farms in multiple regions elevate levels of sea lice on wild juvenile pink and chum salmon.

Cohen Commission hearings are open to the public and will be held from 10 am to 12:30 pm, and 2-4 pm at the Federal Court at 701 West Georgia Street, 8th floor, Vancouver.

For more information contact:

Michael Price

Raincoast Conservation Foundation (www.raincoast.org)

pricem@uvic.ca

(250-847-1519)

August 18, 2011

Three different BC salmon conservation groups say that north coast fishermen have thrown back 1.37 million pounds of Chum Salmon – enough to fill 40 transport trucks - while rushing to catch as many Pink Salmon as they can within the 16-hour window. Regulations say that Chum Salmon have to be thrown back as quickly as possible, but fishermen who are preoccupied with the Pink Salmon are leaving the Chum out of the water for too long before being thrown back. The result, say the conservationists, is that about half of the fish do not survive afterwards long enough to spawn, making the problem of depleting Chum stocks even worse.

The Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust are not putting most of the blame on the fishermen who are actually breaking the rules, but instead are pointing the finger at the Department of Oceans and Fisheries.

To read the rest of this article, please visit the Northern View website.

Three Canadian environmental groups say Canada is mismanaging the British Columbia chum salmon fishery by requiring massive amounts of discards.

Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust on Wednesday alleged that B.C. commercial fisheries discarded more than 1.37 million pounds of chum salmon over the last month,enough, they say, to fill 40 transport trucks. The groups say that many of the fish will not survive to spawn.

Click here to read the whole story    http://www.seafoodsource.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  JULY 28, 2011

VANCOUVER, BC – Four B.C. conservation groups want assurance that 44 conditions will be met before offering full support for the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification of three B.C. pink salmon fisheries. Watershed Watch, Skeena Wild, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation support the conditional certification but say their support depends on the improvements, or conditions, being implemented within the time frames required by the certification.

The International Marine Stewardship Council is announcing its certification of the B.C. pink salmon fisheries this week. The announcement comes after lengthy efforts by conservation groups, industry and government to agree on improvements that will lead to sustainable fishing of pink salmon. These improvements are designed to bring the fishery into compliance with MSC’s criteria within five years.

“Getting to this stage has required extensive investment of time and money by industry, government and our organizations,” said Aaron Hill of Watershed Watch. “The willingness industry has shown to address problems within the fishery has been an important factor in our support.”

Improvements necessary for the pink fishery lie in three general areas.

“First, oversight of fishing practices, catch and by-catch by independent third parties has been insufficient, said Greg Knox of Skeena Wild. “This allows substantial numbers of other species, including endangered populations of chum, sockeye and steelhead salmon, to be discarded by fishers targeting pink salmon. Second, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s failure to implement its Wild Salmon Policy means that sustainable fishing levels for pink salmon, as well as the species discarded, have not been defined. Finally, the impacts of fisheries on marine and terrestrial wildlife and habitat have not been fully considered.”

A clear example of outstanding problems was revealed in a fishery that was opened along the North Coast of B.C. last week. In one 16-hour opening, more than 21,000 chum salmon were discarded in a fishery targeting pink salmon. Many North Coast chum stocks are depressed and a lack of monitoring means we don’t know how badly these fisheries may be harming at-risk salmon.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and industry have acknowledged these required improvements and have endorsed an action plan to address them. Under the plan, conservation groups will participate in annual audits of the certification. Failure to make progress may lead to the fishery losing its MSC certification. Success depends on DFO making this a priority by committing the necessary funds and people. DFO officials have stated, however, that they cannot commit additional resources. This has led to concern among industry, conservation groups and those in DFO responsible for the action plan that DFO budget cuts may put the certification at risk.

“This is the start of the process, not the end,” said Jeffery Young of the David Suzuki Foundation. “This certification highlights a number of problems with this fishery that must be addressed. It’s now up to the federal government to provide the resources necessary to improve this fishery and maintain certification.”

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For more information contact:

Aaron Hill, Ecologist, Watershed Watch Salmon Society (250) 818-0054

Greg Knox, Executive Director, Skeena Wild, (250) 638-0998

Jeffery Young, Biologist, David Suzuki Foundation, (604) 764-6142

Misty MacDuffee, Biologist, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, (250) 818-2136

Download the pdf version  MSC pink salmon press release-July 2011

February 3, 2011

by Michael Price and Chris Genovali

A new study recently published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE by researchers from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, and the Universities of Victoria and Simon Fraser provides the first link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon in British Columbia.

To read the rest of this article please visit the Huffington Post website.

Industry disputes fish farm sea lice is harming wild salmon – February 17, 2011

Comment: “There’s a lot of research that shows it [sea lice from salmon farms] is not resulting in population declines. Not only has it been shown that Pacific salmon are resistant to damage from sea lice once their scales are fully developed, but a study published in December compared sea lice data directly to returns of pink salmon in the Broughton and showed there was no relation between lice levels on farms and wild salmon returns”.

Response: The above mentioned article published in December is in fact the only paper to show that wild salmon population declines in regions with salmon farms are not correlated with sea lice from farms. This study, based on a nine-year time series, lacked full statistical comparisons of productivity in regions without salmon farms. Other studies that included such comparisons reported significant declines in productivity of pink salmon in relation to salmon farms (Krkosek et al. 2007, Science 318: 1772-1775; Krkosek & Hilborn 2011, Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 68: 17-29).

In regards to juvenile sockeye, research to date has not examined the effects of sea lice on individual fish or populations. However, evidence is mounting that marine parasites, such as sea lice, can induce behavioural changes that may result in higher mortality rates for hosts. The transition from freshwater to marine environments is one of the most physiologically demanding phases for salmon, and overall marine survival appears to depend on rapid early marine growth. Even low levels of parasitic infection may be harmful during this critical period. Moreover, the presence and abundance of sea lice on juvenile sockeye may be an indicator for other farm-origin pathogens. Given the high intensities of lice observed on some juveniles in our study (i.e., 28 lice/fish), concern is justified.

By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist February 12, 2011

Sea lice are spreading from fish farm salmon to young Fraser River sockeye as they migrate through the Strait of Georgia, a new study has found.

The research by scientists from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Public Library of Science ONE this week.

It is the first time a proven link has been found between fish farms and elevated rates of sea lice on Fraser River sockeye.

Most research has concentrated on the effect of lice on juvenile pinks and chums.

“It’s groundbreaking. It’s the first study to demonstrate the role of salmon farms in transmitting sea lice to Fraser River sockeye … the crown jewel of salmon runs on the west coast,” said lead author Michael Price, of Raincoast Conservation and UVic.

To read the rest of this article please visit the Times Colonist website.

A new study published Monday in the journal Public Library of Science ONE by researchers from Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, and the Universities of Victoria and Simon Fraser provides the first link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon.

The article, Sea Louse Infection of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon in Relation to Marine Salmon Farms on Canada’s West Coast, genetically identified 30 distinct stocks of infected Fraser sockeye that pass by open net-pen salmon farms in the Strait of Georgia, including the endangered Cultus Lake stock. The study found that parasitism of Fraser sockeye increased significantly after the juvenile fish passed by fish farms. These same species of lice were found in substantial numbers on the salmon farms.

To read the rest of this article please visit the Canada.com website.