Salmon Steward is the official publication of the Pacific Salmon Foundation in British Columbia, Canada
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/300930
Fewer and fewer people remember the shery that's been lost within the Strait of Georgia. In 2014, it will be 20 years since wild Coho salmon production plummeted in the Strait and managers were required to close all sheries harvesting these Coho salmon in southern British Columbia. As the adjacent graph portrays, the losses were not small. Although the catches varied between years, on average, 700,000 wild Coho salmon were caught annually in the Strait of Georgia, and today, we continue with a ban on retention of wild Coho. The disappearance of these sh also resulted in a huge loss of income to communities around the Strait, harming many people's livelihoods. Fact: Between 1993-1995, the Strait of Georgia fi shery literally disappeared taking with it about $750 million in economic benefi ts for local communities. GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE HINDER RECOVERY Monitoring programs by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) indicate about a 10- fold decline in the survival of hatchery and naturally produced Coho salmon at sea. But what has not been explained, is the cause of the sudden and precipitous decline in survival in the mid-1990s, and why that change has persisted for 20 years. Monitoring programs can advise managers but cannot explain such events. To address the "why," we need to invest in science to improve our understanding of factors limiting wild Coho salmon production. The need to invest in science is met with two common arguments. Some will assert that DFO and universities have done lots of research and surely they must have answers. This is true to a degree; but science explaining the loss of this shery and how to restore it has not been conclusive. The second argument is that science is expensive. But in truth, the cost of research pales in comparison to the cumulative loss of income to local communities over the past 20 years! DESIGNING A SCIENCE- BASED SOLUTION So naturally, when the Paci c Salmon Foundation was asked in 2009 to address this loss, we took the bait. We designed an ecosystem-based study to determine the factors limiting production of wild Chinook and Coho in the Strait of Georgia 14 2014 psf.ca salmon Steward magazine 15 BY DR. BRIAN RIDDELL Above: Catch of Coho salmon by hook-and-line gear in the Strait of Georgia, 1970-2008. The straight line is the average catch (704,000 per year) before the crash after 1995. RESTORING A LOST SALMON FISHERY 2014 MARKS THE LAUNCH OF THE SALISH SEA MARINE SURVIVAL PROJECT – THE LARGEST-SCALE AND MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH EFFORT OF ITS KIND 0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1969 1972 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 1975 1,200,000 The Decline of Wild Coho in the Strait of Georgia p14-17Brian feature_data centre.indd 14 14-04-16 2:57 PM