Skeena sockeye forecast low; sports fishery closed
This year’s sockeye salmon run on the Skeena River in northern B.C., second in production only to the Fraser River, is forecast to be the lowest on record.
As a result, more than a dozen First Nations communities along the river and on the coast have decided not to fish the sockeye run, the second such decision in the past four years.
It has also resulted in a decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to close the recreational fishery on the Skeena River to all salmon species, including chinook salmon prized by sports fishermen, until July 14.
It’s the first time for such a decision, say sports anglers, who disagree with the decision and say there were alternatives.
Fisheries and Oceans says the decision to close the recreational fishery was made to ensure salmon was providing for food, social and ceremonial purposes to First Nations, a priority for the federal government and a right protected in law.
The First Nations will fish for chinook in the Skeena in place of the preferred sockeye.
Colin Masson, director of the North Coast for Fisheries and Oceans, said the real issue in ultimately deciding to close the sports fishery was the potential for conflict on the river.
He noted the First Nation right to a food fishery is next in line after conservation.
The hope is to recover the sockeye run from 2013, a poor year affected by the so-called warm blob in the Pacific Ocean, a large mass of water warmer in temperature than usual. It was first detected in 2013 and spread throughout 2014 and 2015.
Masson said the warm blob has attracted more predators that feed on the ocean salmon such as hake and squid, and also changed the type of zooplankton bloom to a food source not normally consumed by salmon.
The returning sockeye run — estimated to be less than 600,000 and possibly as low as 400,000 — would have been affected by several years of the warm blob.
In other four-year cycle years, more than one million sockeye return to the Skeena.
Masson also noted that initially there was consideration of an entire recreational closure on the Skeena, but it was later reduced to a closure to July 14, which will allow fishing by sports anglers of some late-run Chinook, as well as coho and steelhead.
Mark Cleveland, a senior technical adviser for the Skeena Fisheries Commission representing First Nations, noted that aboriginal communities rely heavily on the sockeye fishery. Communities include those from the Tsimshian, Gitxsan, Gitanyow, Wet’suwet’en and Lake Babine First Nations.
Cleveland said it’s critical to sustain the sockeye, which is why, on the recommendation of commission scientists, the minimum target of sockeye that return to spawning grounds has been raised to 600,000 from 400,000.
Lake Babine Nation Chief Wilf Adam said no sockeye fishery is tough to swallow for the nation’s communities, for whom sockeye salmon is a big part of the culture. “We are preparing as best as we can,” said Adam, noting they’ll try to make arrangements to get fish from other nations.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation, which represents recreational anglers, doesn’t believe Fisheries and Oceans is balancing conservation goals with aboriginal, recreational and commercial-fishing opportunities.
Ken Franzen, co-chairman of the federation’s tidal-water fisheries committee, said sports fishers had agreed to reduce their catch of chinook salmon by 50 per cent and to entirely close recreational Chinook fishing on Skeena tributaries.