On February 17, the MCC Salmon Sub-Committee of the Marine Conservation Caucus sent a letter to the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coastguard, regarding concerns around expansion of marine recreational fishing in southern BC. Importantly, the Salmon Sub-Committee of the Marine Conservation Caucus believes that there should be no expansion…
Alaskan fisheries in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) intercept salmon returning to British Columbia (BC) rivers. Given the current depressed status of many BC wild salmon populations, and in the context of changing marine and freshwater environments due to climate change; there is growing concern that as Canadian salmon abundance declines, and Canada closes or restricts its fisheries,…
The salmon committee of the MCC has submitted its comments on the draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for salmon. Concerns have been identified for the lack of recovery of at-risk populations that continue to be fished, concerns for proposals that move Canada toward U.S. style fisheries that rely on hatcheries, concerns for mixed-stock ocean fisheries that should move more catch to terminal areas, and concerns for wildlife and ecosystems that depend on wild salmon reaching their natal streams
On March 18, the MCC submitted the following letter to Minister Jordan describing the potential impacts of mark selective fisheries on endangered Chinook populations, and detailing concerns around DFO’s proposed catch, release, compliance, and stock composition monitoring and evaluation. While there may be limited opportunities for MSF fisheries in BC recreational Chinook fisheries, most of…
On March 1, DFO released the draft Integrated Fishing Management Plans for salmon for the north and south coast 2021/22. Deadline for comment on these plans is April 9, 2021
In preparation for development of the 2021-22 Integrated Fisheries Management Plans for Northern and Southern BC, DFO released the Department’s letter on key planning priorities. DFO’s priorities include First Nations FSC fisheries, COSEWIC and SARA processes, the Big Bar landslide, and CSAF demonstration fisheries. For southern BC, priorities are for Southern BC Chinook, Southern Resident…
DFO’s State of the Salmon Program gave a presentation at the Preliminary Salmon Outlook Meeting on Dec. 17, 2020. It details environmental conditions that will inform salmon returns in 2021. In summary, given broadly similar conditions in recent years it is expected that there will be below average survival for many Fraser stocks, coast-wide declines…
COSEWIC has released its new assessments for South Coast BC Chinook populations most impacted by hatcheries: four were designated Endangered, three Threatened, and one Special Concern, while one was deemed Not at Risk. Three remote populations were determined to be Data Deficient, and will require additional research before being re-assessed. The two Thompson River steelhead…
The MCC recommends a transition of Pacific herring management toward an ecosystem based fishery through lowering the harvest rate and implementing operational control points to maintain the biomass at a higher level.
On April 24th DFO released a package including the feedback they received on the draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plans for Salmon on the north and south coast. The letters include feedback from First Nations, commercial and sport harvest committees and the MCC. The package can be viewed or downloaded below.
On March 2, the DFO sent a letter to stakeholders and First Nations soliciting feedback on proposed management measures for South Coast Chinook. The Department received feedback on the March 2 letter from approximately 15 groups providing recommendations on possible changes to the 2019 Chinook fishery restrictions for the upcoming year, including 9 from First…
Comments on the North and South Coast Integrated Fishing Management Plans for Salmon were due on April 20. We (the MCC Salmon committee) submitted comments on the IFMPs. Our comments cover Chinook, sockeye, coho, pink and chum fisheries management across the province of BC, as well as on catch monitoring and compliance, hatcheries, total mortalities…
On March 2, 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada released a letter that intended to communicate their approach for developing fisheries management actions to address conservation concerns for Fraser River Chinook over the next year. On April 9, the MCC submitted a letter in response detailing our Management Recommendations, Rationale and Evaluation. In it we detail…
Since those preliminary estimates were released, the authors of the original discussion paper have invested considerable time refining input data (genetic stock ID information) in collaboration with DFO. We also incorporated additional information and perspectives to inform the model’s ‘risk factors’. During the review of the genetic stock ID data, it was decided to drop…
Deadline for comments extended until April 9. DFO released a letter detailing their 2020 Fraser River Chinook Management Approach on March 2. Comments are due by March 27th, 2020. This letter is intended to communicate the Department’s approach for developing fisheries management actions to address conservation concerns for Fraser River Chinook over the next year….