A call for federal action from the Suzuki Foundation

The David Suzuki Foundation has issued a new report into the state of the Pacific Salmon fishery and has concluded that unless the Federal Government does more to help out the stocks, then the very survival of wild pacific salmon may be at stake.

The report called An Upstream Battle, looks at both the causes of the current troubles for British Columbia’s wild salmon and some of the ideas for turning around the dire situation of one of British Columbia’s best known resources.

The Daily news featured some details of their findings as part of a front page story in the Thursday edition.

FEDS URGED TO ACT NOW OR RISK LOWING B. C.'S SALMON

By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, January 31, 2008

Pages one and three

A new report from the David Suzuki Foundation concludes that the federal government must do more if wild Pacific salmon stocks are to stand a chance of survival.

The recently released report, entitled An Upstream Battle: Declines in 10 Pacific Salmon Stocks and Solutions for Their Survival, explores the factors contributing to the loss of Pacific salmon as well as ways we might save them. The report concludes that urgent action is needed to save wild stocks in British Columbia and to protect the freshwater and coastal ecosystems where they live and spawn.

"This report shows that we've reached a critical point," said Jeffrey Young, an aquatic biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation.

"These 10 stocks are examples of the challenges facing all wild Pacific salmon. It's clear that urgent action and comprehensive fisheries and habitat management changes are absolutely necessary."

In An Upstream Battle, the foundation’s salmon experts examined escapement, catch and harvest-rate data going back to at least 1980 for four stocks of sockeye, three of coho, and one each of chum, Chinook, and steelhead on the B. C. mainland and Vancouver Island. The report reveals that the stocks studied have declined from 70 percent to 93 percent since the early 1990s, which experts believe demonstrates declines that have occurred across the range of Pacific salmon in Canada. In addition, the foundation states that many other salmon stocks have faced similar declines and much of the diversity of Pacific salmon has already been lost.

“Salmon spend part of their lives in fresh water and part in the ocean, so they are an excellent barometer for the overall health of the environment. They’re also an important food source and support thousands of jobs,” he said. “We have to address all the threats to salmon survival, including fishing, habitat loss, and global warming.”

Because salmon fishing employs roughly 25,000 people in B. C. and contributes more than $500 million a year to the B. C. economy, the foundation says it is clear the economic prosperity of the province has a lot to lose if B. C.’s salmon are lost.

The foundation said other wildlife that depend on wild Pacific salmon stocks also have a lot riding on the future of the salmon.

The report concludes that several initiatives are needed immediately, including increased enforcement of habitat regulations, more selective fishing practices, a precautionary approach to fisheries and habitat management, legislated protection for endangered salmon stocks and full implementation of the federal wild salmon policy.

The David Suzuki Foundation is calling on the federal government to do more to enforce existing habitat protection laws and monitor salmon diversity. It also wants the feds to work closely with the province of B. C. to better manage extraction, development, fish farms, pollution and water use. The foundation is also calling on concerned Canadians to make sustainable choices when buying seafood and they are asking the government to implement the report’s recommendations.