Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. (Photo: Cohen Commission)

Sockeye salmon return to the Frazer River hits record low

CANADA
Wednesday, August 24, 2016, 00:20 (GMT + 9)

Given the number of sockeye salmon return to the Fraser River is expected to hit a record low this summer, the Government has suspended all the fisheries of this resource, including commercial and indigenous fishing.

According to official forecasts, the species decline in the Western Canada area would be from 2.3 million to 1.1 million fish but that number is now expected to be closer to 850,000, CBC reported.

Experts in the field blamed the low return on a decrease in the number of existing parent fish, a large area of warm water in the Pacific Ocean and above-normal temperatures of river water.

The Pacific Salmon Commission measured water in the Fraser River on August 18 and found it to be 20.6 °C or 2.5 °C higher than the average for that date. Salmon are a cold water fish and adults begin to die when the water temperature goes above 18 or 19 degrees.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver-based Watershed Watch Salmon Society (WWSS) responded to the news with a release that calls attention to the impacts that climate change can have on salmon runs in southern BC, Global News informed.

“Canada’s most iconic salmon run is now officially on track to have their worst return in a century,” it reads. “And they are swimming into river water that is nearly 21℃, which can be lethal for salmon. Many are expected to die before spawning. These things are connected. We are reaping what we sow.”

The release also called attention to a new “climate plan” for British Columbia that the Premier Christy Clark unveiled at a news conference on August 19.

The plan has been widely criticized for leaving out a 2030 target for a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and for failing to include an increase to the carbon tax, both of which were recommended by the province’s own panel on climate change.

The WWSS release argues that an issue like a low salmon run observed on the Fraser River is directly related to provincial environmental policies.

“What’s the connection between Premier Clark’s no-action climate plan, and your wild salmon?” it reads. “It’s pretty simple. Salmon need clean, cool water when they return to our rivers to spawn the next generation. Climate change is making our rivers warmer, on average, causing more B.C. salmon to die in our rivers before they can spawn. This is well established scientifically. It is not controversial. It is our reality.”

In April 2015, the Straight published an in-depth feature article about endangered species across British Columbia. Interviewed for that story, Jeffery Young, a scientist and policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, told the Straight that overarching trends for salmon in B.C. are largely negative.

“Some of the most significant declines tend to be in sockeye salmon, coho, and chinook, particularly in the southern portion of the province,” he said. “It’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Among other risks, such as overfishing, Young described climate change as a less visible but still significant danger to salmon in B.C.
He noted that records for the Fraser River—a major spawning conduit, rare in that it runs through a major city—show temperatures have risen since at least as far back as the mid–20th century.

“Now we’re at a point where temperatures, on average, have increased about two degrees Celsius,” he said. “So far.”
 

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