2009 decisive for B.C. salmon By D.C. Reid, Special to Times ColonistDecember 31, 2009 2009 may well go down in history as the tipping point for west coast salmon. Four scientists left the Department of Fisheries and Oceans -- one 'retired', two quit and one jumped to the Pacific Salmon Foundation. If the best and brightest can't take the political interference and lack of action, the DFO is policy bankrupt and moribund.
We do like hatcheries, volunteer restoration and school programs. But the largest part is bad. For starters, the DFO let the Fraser River sockeye collapse. Had Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun, and brother Mark Hume in the Globe not been documenting the problem, the DFO might have gotten away with doing nothing. But it didn't.
The DFO brought in a council, under judge Bruce Cohen to take off the heat. Don't hold your breath -- the final report is two years away. And don't think DFO will do anything. After all, the 2009 Auditor General's report lambasted their lack of action and 148 year failure on water pollution. DFO acknowledged its lack of action, but here's the clincher: the auditor general has been making the same recommendations in reports spanning a decade.
Then there is the damning evidence the DFO knew about the collapse two years before it happened. The 2007 Georgia St. Seine found a miniscule 159 fry from a massive 139 million Chilko/Quesnel output. Yet DFO came out with a 10 million estimate for 2009 only to see it come in more like one million. Were they surprised?
Then there was the minister in Norway, wooing more fish farmers to B.C. Minister Shea did this even though B.C. residents have been shouting about closed containment and effluent treatment for a decade. Oh, and an aquaculture lobby has sprung up in Ottawa. Hmm.
Then there was the fish farmers' "science." The gist is this: the Alberta sea lice research was funded by American salmon interests who want to put B.C. fish farmers out of business and sell their wild Alaska salmon into the vacated market. Here's the point: fish farmers like to claim any request for change is intended to put them out of business. But this is not so. All we have asked for is closed containment.
Then 40,000 Atlantics escaped in the Broughton Archipelago in October. Alexandra Morton, sea lice scientist, pointed out to Shea that 20,243 B.C. residents have signed her petition to eliminate the sea lice problem. And this includes pro bono lawyers for court cases, other costs paid by our dollars to prevent Atlantic eggs importing ISA virus into B.C. She continues to lay charges against the DFO under its own Fisheries Act for failure to act.
Then the most important casualty of this terrible malaise: the precautionary principle: lack of scientific evidence is not a reason to fail to take action to save wild salmon. The DFO lacks science because it doesn't fund it properly, but hides behind that lack, when it suits its purposes. And remember the Province's own figures show fish farming contributes only 2,100 jobs to our economy. And, at 0.2 per cent of GDP it can never be a major player in B.C. But we give up wild salmon, bears, etc.
Here's the good part: the December SFU think tank on salmon -- media reported the DFO instructed its scientists not to attend. Its own data show the Fraser sockeye collapse began 15 years ago. Former Fisheries Minister, John Fraser, said the DFO had the stats and it is incredible they did nothing. In part, the scientists left because the word in Ottawa was: why should we give you more funding for salmon research when there is no value in salmon?
No value in salmon? I think it will prove the moment people in B.C. began realizing it is up to us and our organizations to save the salmon.
dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com 
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