Salmon Steward

salmon Steward magazine 7 DFO KAMLOOPS; SOMBILON STUDIOS Sea area. Estuary and nearshore habitat are expected to change with sea-level rise, and PSF is working with our partners to develop measures that can be implemented to adapt management and restoration guidelines to meet the future needs of salmon. The research also identified that eelgrass and kelp distribution and abundance are changing, and we are working with our partners to identify why this is happening, and how we can respond. PSF has also recognized that there is significant change in the freshwater envi- ronment because of changes to snowpack and stream flows, increased drought, and increased scale and intensity of forest fires. PSF has developed initial plans to begin a Climate Action Plan for B.C. salmon and we will be continuing to seek funding and partners to move forward on this work. PSF has spoken out in support of transitioning from open net-pen aquaculture to closed-containment systems. What is PSF currently doing to advance their position on this topic? I n 2014, PSF collaborated with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Genome BC to create the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI) to study the health of wild, farmed and hatchery salmon in British Columbia. The findings from that work have reinforced that the risks are real and significant, such as the identification of piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) in Atlantic salmon in Pacific waters. Last year, PSF was invited to participate in a Fish Health Technical Working Group established by DFO aimed at enhancing the Department's science-based decision-mak- ing processes on aquaculture. Dr. Emiliano Di Cicco and Andrew Bateman have been working with PSF on the SSHI and have been participating in this working group to contribute their expertise and the important findings from the SSHI to this process. To date, this research highlights a previ- ously undocumented set of risks to wild salmon health – risks that have not been fully assessed. PSF is mindful that the science around open net-pen aquaculture is contentious, but it is our belief that the precautionary principle should be applied to ensure minimal risk to Pacific salmon. PSF was pleased to see that the mandate letter for new DFO Minister Bernadette Jordan included as a priority to "work with the province of British Columbia and lndigenous communities to create a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025 and begin work to introduce Canada's first-ever Aquaculture Act." PSF has offered to support this transition and we are pleased to be part of work that is already underway. Washington State began implementing a mark-selective fishery (MSF) in 2003, where fisheries allow the retention of fish with a clipped adipose fin (hatchery fish) and require the release of unclipped fish (wild fish). Is this an approach B.C. could consider in the future? T his idea has merit in B.C., but it is more complicated than people may realize. The underlying idea is that fishing pressure can be targeted at hatchery fish, resulting in reduced mortality on wild fish. This proposal can be successful when the number of marked hatchery fish in a given area is high, and encounter with wild fish is low. That said, there is always incidental mortality when salmon are caught and released, and the challenge is to establish management measures that do not lead to impacts on weak populations of wild fish that are migrating along with marked hatchery fish. For this kind of measure to significantly increase fishery opportunities for Chinook in southern B.C., the number of marked Chinook would have to increase significantly. Further analytical work is required to determine the potential benefits and feasibility of increasing the number of marked Chinook in southern B.C., such as genetic effects of increased hatchery production on wild fish, effects of increased competition between hatchery and wild fish, amongst other factors. DFO has started some work on this, and PSF has been exploring ways that we can help advance the work required to fully evaluate this for B.C. After-effects of a forest fire in the Bonaparte Watershed near Kamloops. Jason Hwang, VP of Salmon, addresses the crowd at PSF's Vancouver Gala.

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