Hearings Puzzle Over Fraser River Sockeye Collapse; Spawning Productivity Down 80%+ In Past 20 Years

[hatrack]

EDIT

The commission's objectives are twofold: to figure out why the Fraser's sockeye run has been tanking since the early 1990s; and to make recommendations about how Fraser sockeye should be sustainably managed by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). No one really believes that Justice Cohen will come up with an explanation for the decline. Tony Farrell, a fish physiologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, says that asking lawyers to work out why the Fraser sockeye is waning is incongruous. "Is that what you'd ask lawyers to look at? I wouldn't," he says.

But scientists hope that the commission's final recommendations, due in June 2012, will prompt reform of the DFO, which they say is failing woefully in its remit to protect Canada's fish. The DFO has a dual mandate to promote the aquaculture industry and to protect wild fish and their habitats — objectives that can be at odds. "I've lost faith that DFO can make a decision that is not politically based," says Rick Taylor, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia. "There are so many conflicts within that structure. That's why people don't trust them."
Fish fight

Although the number of returning sockeye has dropped dramatically from the early 1990s, the falling productivity of the population — how many offspring per spawning adult survive to spawn themselves – is a greater worry, declining from more than five offspring per spawning adult to less than one over the past 20 years. Possible culprits include marine predation, climate change, ocean contaminants, harmful algae, disease, ocean productivity and fish farms, which are controversially associated with a reduction in wild salmon survival. "I don't frankly have much hope that will be able to sort this out," says Lawrence Dill, a behavioural ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. "I don't think there is a single cause."

The commission could have more impact on the management of the fishery. "The conclusion of the Cohen Commission will have far greater weight than any other inquiry dealing with our oceans in my memory," says Jeff Hutchings, a fish conservation biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110928/full/news.2011.563.html

[GliderGuider]

1. Here's the way another part of the department looks at the Conservation & Protection branch at DFO

I was on a tour of a Canadian Coast Guard base on the St. Lawrence River and our host showed us a number of large navigation buoys that had just been removed from the river. The lower part of each buoy was encrusted with zebra mussels. The conversation turned to what a nuisance the mussels are, and how hard they are to get rid of. Then the Coast Guard officer said, "Well, we've finally figured out what to do about them. We're going to have them declared an endangered species, and put them under the protection of DFO's Conservation and Protection branch. That should guarantee they'll be extinct in two years."

The cynicism about DFO's competence runs very deep. Not to mention that they impounded the Sea Shepherd's ship Farley Mowat under controversial circumstances, then sold her at auction for $5,000.

[hatrack]

2. Oh, yeah - the "experts" who did such a great job on the Grand Banks cod fishery . . .

:silly:

[GliderGuider]

3. Ayup, dem's da byes, eh.