In April 2026, the MCC salmon committee submitted its feed back to DFO on recovery and management issues for the 2026-2027 fishing season. We address species and population concerns for all five commercially managed salmon species, as well as steelhead. We also identify concerns for environmental conditions and drought management, address issues around Release Mortality…
The Pacific Marine Conservation Caucus (MCC) views the Salmon Allocation Policy (SAP) as a central instrument for conserving and recovering wild Pacific salmon, not merely a framework for allocating harvest among user groups. We believe salmon must be managed in the broad public interest, while equally upholding Indigenous rights. OverviewThe current SAP (1999) predates the…
The MCC has repeatedly expressed concern regarding changes to the distribution of herring spawn in the Strait of Georgia (SoG), and the lack of consideration for this issue in the current assessment and management approach. We understand that this concern is shared by many stakeholders and First Nations in the SoG. For this reason, the…
This letter is submitted as feedback to DFO on options for prey management through Southern Resident killer whales critical habitat. The MCC’s submission is framed within three intersecting contexts: enhanced recovery efforts for endangered killer whales; recovery efforts for threatened, endangered, and at-risk spring and summer stream-type Chinook salmon returning to the Fraser River; and…
In April 2025, the MCC salmon committee submitted its feed back to DFO on recovery and management issues for the 2025-2025 fishing season. We address species and population concerns for all five commercially managed salmon species, as well as steelhead. We also identify concerns for environmental conditions and drought management, SEP production plans, catch monitoring, Alaskan…
The David Suzuki Foundation and the MCC have repeatedly expressed deep concern regarding the state of herring spawning in the Strait of Georgia. The herring fishery has undergone substantial truncation in both spatial and temporal extent, such that spawning is now minimal south of Dodd Narrows and concentrated in March. In 2024, the temporal extent…
The MCC has submitted its feedback on salmon fisheries (PDF), recovery and management issues to DFO for the the 2024-2025 fishing season. We address species and population concerns for all 5 commercially managed salmon species, as well as steelhead. We also identify concerns for management decisions in light of freshwater migration conditions.
In our previous letter for the proposed 2023/2024 Food & Bait and Special Use fisheries, we provided the rationale for a closure of commercial herring fisheries in Area 17, a cap on the proportion of the Strait of Georgia (SoG) Total Allowable Catch (TAC) that is allocated to the Food & Bait fishery, and a maximum 7%…
On November 13, 2023, the Pacific Marine Conservation Caucus (MCC) submitted the following letter in response to the draft 2022/2023 Pacific herring Food & Bait and Special Use (FB/SU) commercial fishery plans. In this submission, we reiterate our concern regarding the ongoing loss of herring spawning in the southern Strait of Georgia, with a specific…
The salmon subcommittee of the Marine Conservation Caucus submitted its comments on the draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for Pacific salmon. Our comments fall into the following Areas: 0 Defining Recovery and Rebuilding 0.1 Recovery 0.2 Rebuilding 1. Chinook 1.1 Northern BC Chinook 1.1.1 North Coast and Skeena 1.1.2 Central Coast 1.2 Southern BC Chinook…
The MCC has submitted its feedback to DFO on the mark selective Chinook fisheries proposed to start in the spring of 2023. Mark Selective Fisheries target “marked” hatchery Chinook that are missing their adipose fin. Many of these fisheries would increase the sport fishery effort at a time when endangered Fraser stream-type Chinook are migrating…
The MCC, along with First Nations from Vancouver Island, issued a press release on March 2, 2023 calling on DFO to halt its proposed Mark Selective Fisheries on Chinook salmon. The fishery will harm both endangered Chinook and endangered killer whales
The MCC has submitted feedback on the 2022/2023 Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for Pacific Herring. The main points are summarized below and the letter is provided for more details. Strait of Georgia: We reiterate our position that Strait of Georgia (SoG) herring are showing several signs of concern, and that these issues, when considered together,…
On November 16, 2022, the Pacific Marine Conservation Caucus (MCC) submitted the following letter in response to the draft 2022/2023 Pacific herring Food & Bait and Special Use (FB/SU) commercial fishery plans. Unlike previous years, the draft 2022/2023 FB/SU plans do not include an initial amount for proposed quota allocations to these fisheries. Therefore, we…
Through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), DFO is proposing to expand mass-marking (MM) of hatchery fish and implement more mark-selective fisheries (MSF). In June, DFO distributed a discussion paper identifying considerations around expansion of MM and MSF in BC. In late September, the MCC Salmon Subcommittee submitted feedback to DFO in response to their…