Fraser River fishery under scrutiny
White sturgeon population in catch-and-release area suffers wide-ranging stress, say conservationists
The provincial government is pursuing two new studies of the Fraser River white sturgeon, while First Nations conservationists call for the recreational fishery to be curtailed.
“We have a longtime moratorium on killing sturgeon that (First Nations) adopted voluntarily back in the ’90s,” said Ken Malloway, chairman of the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance. The alliance has also called for fishing to be banned on spawning grounds, similar to protections in place on the Columbia River.
“The fishery is open every day of the year,” he said. “The spawning grounds are heavily fished, and the government refuses to do anything about it.”
The provincial government catchand-release sturgeon fishery in the Fraser River is out of proportion to the number of fish left in the river, Malloway said.
Nearly 17,000 recreational fishing licences for sturgeon are now sold each year in B.C. — a combination of one-day, eight-day and annual permits — up from 9,828 in 2009.
The population of adult white sturgeon is estimated to be about 43,000, according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Many sturgeon are hooked, pulled up to the boat and released dozens of times during their lifetime, said Malloway.
“The female fish get very stressed by being caught repeatedly and reabsorb their eggs so they don’t spawn,” he said. “I think that would help explain why we are seeing fewer juvenile fish in the past few years.”
The ministry has two studies underway to better quantify the catch-and-release fishery.
A request for proposal issued in August seeks analysis of the 2015 catch and the number of days spent by anglers pursuing sturgeon. A separate mail-out survey is intended to ascertain the number of white sturgeon caught and released by licence holders during the 2016 recreational fishery.
So far this year 13 mortalities have been recorded, mainly due to unintentional bycatches in gill nets and ghost gill nets, or propeller strikes. Last year, 15 deaths were reported.
However, total mortality is “unknown due to unreported mortalities and poaching.”
“Given the approximately 43,000 white sturgeon (greater than 60 cm in length) in the Fraser River, the 16,991 licences issued, and the high reported recapture rates of individual fish, mortality related to the catch and release fishery in non-tidal waters is believed to be low,” said the ministry in a response to inquiries by Postmedia.
However, a study published last year in the journal Conservation Physiology found that sturgeon suffer wide-ranging stress as a result of being caught and some fish died during their experiments. Researchers noted large sturgeon may be played for more than two hours before being reeled in and released.
Sturgeon anglers and angling guides are informed by the ministry on how to handle sturgeon with care to ensure good stewardship in the fishery so that capture stress is minimized, according to the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society.
“We did a study in 2006 comparing various fisheries and the techniques used related to mortality, and catchand-release fishing was found to be negligible,” said executive director Sarah Schreier. “It is sustainable if it is done in a responsible way.”