The latest data indicates that British Columbia, Canada, has had the worst season for sockeye salmon on record.
The Fraser River Panel found that just 557,000 sockeye – of a projected 4.79 million – have made the run up the river. Fishermen and companies that typically fish the species have labeled the season “disastrous,” according to CityNews, a Vancouver-based news service.
“It’s been dismal. Obviously it’s been a disastrous year for all the fishers and all for many of those companies that depend on that,” Guy Dean, CEO of Organic Ocean told the publication. “If you’re getting fresh sockeye now it’s coming from Alaska, it’s not coming from Canada for sure.”
B.C. sockeye fisheries have remained closed throughout 2019 due to the low numbers, which have been hit by a number of separate factors. High water temperatures due to droughts and unseasonable temperatures, in addition to a large remote landslide on the Fraser River, have both compounded to make it difficult for returning salmon. Fishermen in the region are now calling for some form of emergency relief due to being unable to fish at all in 2019.
“The income they made in 2018 is going to have to stretch for two years and I can tell you that the fishing in 2018 was good but it wasn’t that good,” Joy Thorkelson, president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, told CityNews. “What’s happening is just a disaster for all the fisherman and shore workers, people who work in plants and who mend nets and have been waiting all summer for this season.”
While the B.C. government did confirm that sockeye salmon made it past the Fraser landslide, the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) were worried about the possibility of pink salmon being unable to navigate the difficult channel due to being smaller and weaker swimmers than the sockeye, chinook, and coho salmon.
To assist both the pinks and the other species of salmon, the DFO put together a response team of Canada, B.C., and First Nation leaders to work onsite. The team consulted with technicians, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to move salmon upstream. Using a combination experienced rock scalers and explosives, the team created a passage through which thousands of salmon managed to swim. In addition, the team used helicopters and other methods to manually transport salmon upstream.
So far, according to the DFO, 100,000 fish have either made it past the landslide or been transported upstream.
Photo courtesy of the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
