Tag Archives: Fraser River sockeye salmon
They’re big, they’re fat and thankfully there are finally a whole lot of ‘em!
It’s early, but the Fraser River sockeye salmon run is looking strong for fishermen in U.S. waters. The season started earlier this week for commercial fishermen, with salmon coming in large numbers through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and heading toward Canadian waters. There are a lot of the fish, and they are fat, said Riley Starks, of Lummi Island Wild. The company does reefnet fishing near Lummi Island. On Monday the crew had its best one-day catch ever, he said. >click to read<09:00
Canadian government says chances are minimal that virus will spread from farmed to wild salmon
Canadian fisheries officials say their research concludes there are minimal risks to sockeye salmon in the Fraser River in British Columbia of an infectious virus from Atlantic salmon farms transferring to wild populations. Current fish health management practices such as vaccination and eradication of infected fish help to minimize the risk, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Ottawa. The advice in the report on infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) was developed by consensus of the peer review group of 39 experts from various disciplines, Canadian officials announced during a teleconference from Ottawa on Dec. 20. click here to read the story 17:47
Fraser River Sockeye salmon recommended for listing under Species At Risk Act
The recommendation, announced Monday by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, an independent scientific body that advises the federal government, is the most significant acknowledgement to date of the jeopardy facing the iconic red-bodied fish that was once the mainstay of British Columbia’s salmon industry. “It’s a signal of a larger issue,” said Eric Taylor, committee chair and fish ecologist at the University of British Columbia. “The Fraser River is having trouble supporting these fish.” click here to read the story 14:37
3-Minute Market Insight – What Happened to the Fraser River Sockeye Salmon? We ask DFO, Scientist and Fishermen
For this special 300th episode we dug deep to find answers for the question in the back of everyone’s mind – where has all the Fraser River Sockeye salmon gone? In the final in-season assessment of the Fraser River, the Pacific Salmon Commission reported parts of the Fraser at 2.5 degrees higher than average for this time of year, as well as 15 percent lower water discharge. We spoke with Angela Bates, the Area Director for Fraser and BC Interior at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Vancouver, to investigate recent spawning trends. We Asked: The lowest return on record since 1893 is expected this year – what are the factors? Click here to watch the video or click here to read the transcript. Congratulations to Tradex for their 300th episode! 15:18
What’s Fishy About the Feds’ Salmon Promises?
As federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc was in West Vancouver Tuesday, promising that his government would act on all 75 recommendations from the 2012 Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, independent biologist Alexandra Morton was sailing into friendly waters on northern Vancouver Island and casting doubt on the government’s intentions. “There is no substance to it,” said Morton, pointing out that LeBlanc has avoided any commitment to act on the Cohen recommendation to separate promotion of aquaculture from its duty to protect wild salmon or to put the brakes on the salmon farming industry. The progress report, delivered by LeBlanc, noted that Fisheries and Oceans oversight of salmon farming meshes with the department’s mandate and LeBlanc said at the news conference that DFO has a responsibility to promote the sustainable use of “fish resources in a way that is good for the local economy.” That does not go down well with Morton, a thorn in the side of the salmon farming industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for decades. Read the story here 20:22
Sockeye overfishing risks salmon future: critics
Conservationists say federal fishery managers allowed serious overfishing of Fraser River sockeye salmon,,, Bob McKamey, vice-president of the Area E Gillnetters Association, dismissed the objections from Watershed Watch. “It wouldn’t matter what the fishing plan is, they have a kneejerk reaction to the commercial fishing industry in general,” he said. Read the rest here 21:12
New technique improves forecasts for Canada’s prized salmon fishery
A method for analyzing and predicting nature’s dynamic and interconnected systems has improved forecasts of populations of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon, a highly prized fishery in British Columbia, has been developed by scientists. Read the rest here 18:12Warm waters strain shared BC-Washington salmon fishery – So what happened this year?
The Memories has been in Chuck Horjes’s family for 54 years. He began as a teenage deckhand in the 1970s, eventually working his way up to his current position as captain of the 54 foot commercial fishing vessel. Over the years he has travelled up and down the West Coast from Alaska to Oregon in search of salmon. This year he decided to fish an area known as the “salmon traps” near the San Juan Islands in Washington, Read the rest here 06:45
Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery to open for business – this year’s run could see as many as 23 million return
Today’s three-hour opening for gillnetters, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT, follows a recreational fishery Friday and First Nations’ food and ceremonial fisheries held on the lower Fraser this weekend. <Read more here> 21:49
BC Environmental Disaster – Mt. Polley Dam Breach: Estimated 1.5 million sockeye bound for fouled Quesnel Lake
“This is one of the greatest environmental disasters we’ve had on the Fraser,” Orr said. “Some of the effluent will be getting in the Fraser. The big question is how concentrated, how harmful it will be. Some of these compounds have short term impacts and some have much longer term impacts.” <Read more here> 08:56
Salmon farmers in B.C. fish for federal legislation
The lack of a federal aquaculture act is hurting British Columbia salmon farming, and the sector as a whole in Canada, say industry leaders. “We’re the only seafood farming industry in the world that doesn’t have its own legislation,” said Ruth Salmon, the executive director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA). Read more here 06:55
U.S. Secretary of Commerce has declared the Fraser River sockeye salmon run a “fishery disaster”
Fisheries managers blame the decline on poor ocean conditions, warm river temperatures and habitat decline, among other things.The Fraser River empties out near Vancouver, British Columbia. The sockeye salmon from that river are a key resource for the state and tribal fishing industries in Washington. Read [email protected] 07:50
Feds accused of ignoring Cohen’s steps to save sockeye
“What was hailed by many as a blueprint to sustain sockeye into the future is starting to look a lot more like a government retreat.” Cohen focused in large part on the potential risk to wild salmon from net pen fish farms and urged transparent sharing of disease data by the farms. more@surryleader 23:15
Salmon farms near Campbell River capped for 7 years – Province agrees with intent of eight recommendations from the Cohen Commission
Six months after the release of the Cohen Commission’s final report on the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, the B.C. government says it accepts the intent of a number of the report’s recommendations, including putting a cap on future open-net fish farms along a critical migration route. continue reading
