Take Action: Have your say and help protect endangered salmon runs!

From Skeena Wild:

Progress made in 2009 to protect and rebuild weak stocks of Skeena salmon, based on recommendations from the Independent Science Review Panel and harvest rules consistent with the Wild Salmon Policy, is now on the chopping block. DFO proposes to dramatically increase the mixed stock marine fishery despite scientific evidence that this increase will have serious impacts to already suffering wild sockeye in the Skeena.

Have your say and help protect endangered salmon runs!

It's not just the Skeena wild sockeye that would be impacted.

A fisheries watchdog group says the federal government's proposal to increase commercial salmon fishing this year puts pressure on endangered salmon stocks in British Columbia in the name of profits.

LINK (via: The Tyee)

Skeena River Estuary - Heart of the Skeena

The Skeena River Estuary provides some of the most critical salmon habitat in the Skeena River Watershed. Each year over 279 million pacific salmon utilize the Skeena River Estuary. This area is under industrial threat by various large scale projects. The Non-Profit, SkeenaWild produced this video to share information with the public and prompt these corporate giant to reconsider construction activities.

The beat goes on in Canada

Ottawa’s move to allow overfishing of salmon draws united condemnation from First Nations, fishermen, and conservationists.

First  Nations,  recreational  fishermen,  and  conservation  groups  from  the  Skeena   River  watershed  are  calling  on  Fisheries  Minister  Gail  Shea  to  abandon  a  reckless  fishing  plan   being  proposed  by  the  federal  Department  of  Fisheries  and  Oceans  (DFO).  The  new  plan  would   significantly  increase  harvest  rates  on  sockeye  salmon,  resulting  in  the  overfishing  of   endangered  sockeye  populations,  and  serious  impacts  to  other  salmon  species  caught  as  “by-­catch.”     

LINK (via:Skeena Wild)

Deadline looms to comment on two new B.C. salmon farm applications.

Ongoing government reviews of two salmon farm applications on the B.C. coast fly in the face of recommendations of the Cohen Commission related to expansion of the industry, industry critics charged Wednesday.

"It looks like there is major support from DFO to expand farming on this coast while ignoring the Cohen recommendations and the evidence around the science," said Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch. "They're kissing it (the report) off, ignoring most of the recommendations around aquaculture and science."

LINK (via:The Vancouver Sun)

Heavy Metal Salmon: Sub-Lethal Toxicity in the Skeena

Heavy metals are common pollutants of aquatic systems, often associated with human activities. Hard-rock mining, agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization have enabled the release of significant quantities of heavy metals to aquatic ecosystems, sometimes with profound ecological harm.

All of the metals that were examined can negatively impact salmonids to some degree at concentrations below the levels known to cause lethality. Sub-lethal concentrations can alter behaviours related to predator avoidance, foraging, migration, and social interactions, and can cause the physical impairment associated with growth and development, swimming efficiency, and immune system responses.

Conservation Groups Object to Marine Stewardship Council’s “Green Light” to Alaskan Harvest of Endangered Salmon

This should get interesting......

Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC -- Four conservation groups from two countries have joined forces to launch an official objection to the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) proposed re-certification of Alaskan salmon fisheries. Wild Fish Conservancy, from Washington State, along with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation, based in British Columbia (BC), say that the MSC eco-label is turning a blind eye to serious overfishing in Southeast Alaska.

The groups say that Alaskan fishermen intercept too many salmon from endangered populations as the fish migrate through Alaskan waters on their way to spawning grounds in BC and the continental US. The official objection focused on the Southeast Alaska “unit of certification”  where the groups would like the MSC to apply conservation conditions that would address the overfishing of wild Chinook, sockeye, and chum salmon, and require fishermen to report the numbers of steelhead trout that they take as by-catch and keep or discard.

Summary of sustainability strengths and weaknesses in Alaska salmon fisheries. (PDF)

The four groups filing the objection recognize that Alaska boasts some of the best managed and most productive salmon fisheries in the world. What they are asking for is the same stewardship standard to be applied to catches of endangered and at risk salmon in Southeast Alaska.

LINK