How ya doing, chum?

Warmish temperatures during the day, cool ones at night, and my pumpkins are actually turning orange, which is a rarity in Sointula! With fall in full swing, and looking towards winter, I thought I would make my first blog posting since returning from maternity leave about something that also points to this time of year on the coast….the chum salmon run.

Some of you may be rolling your eyes. Why talk about the dog salmon (named because of their large teeth at spawning time), when there are cataclysmic events happening on the Fraser with the sockeye this year? Even the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) website says our poor chum is “the least sought-after of the Pacific salmon species”. Well, I have to ask, least sought after by whom? By the commercial and recreation fishing sectors? By the consumer?

Chum salmon are the last of the species of Pacific salmon to return to our rivers to spawn. In the ocean, they can often be confused with sockeye because of their silver bright colour, but as they approach their natal streams, they differentiate themselves by their distinctive vertical streaks. They are historically extremely abundant and spawn in more than 880 streams and rivers along the BC coast. In my neck of the woods, chum are just now returning to the Nimpkish, Kokish, Cluxewe and Quatse Rivers.

Last month, the Globe and Mail reported that bears on the Central Coast are starving because of the lack of chum salmon. Last year this was happening in Knight Inlet because of the lack of pink salmon. Poor cousin or not, every species of salmon has a place in the ecological web on this coast. And every species of salmon is under threat, whether by infestation of sea lice, warming ocean temperatures, or just plain mismanagement.

Stock outlooks posted by DFO for the 2009 chum runs for Johnstone Strait and Mainland inlets are either low or near target. What floors me is that the difference between the definitions of what is “low” and what is “near target” is substantial. An area that is getting a near target assessment is defined as “stock is (or is forecast to be) within 25% of target and stable or increasing”. An area that is getting a low assessment is defined as “stock is (or is forecast to be) well below target or below target and declining”. It’s like the point at which the pendulum will swing from one side to the other. Is it increasing or decreasing? Are we going to focus less on “managing” a stock if its near target?

And what are the consequences if we are mistaken?

* In researching this blog posting, I looked up the predicted returns on chum this year. All well and good until I want to see it in a bit more detail by stream. I have to admit I am mystified at how anyone can even find this information, let alone interpret it.

http://www.psf.ca/

http://www.nvisea.org/

http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/xnet/content/salmon/webdocs/SalmonStockOutlook2009.htm

http://squamish2010.ca/SHOREKEEPERS/

Name This Spot!

We have a winner for our very first "Name This Spot!" contest!
Our winner is Sarah who resides in Ottawa and correctly identified the photo at left as Kilbella Bay. She is the lucky recipient of our coveted Pncima "Floats My Boat" ball cap!
Thanks to all the others who sent in their answers.

Kilbella Bay which is situated on the north shore at the upper end of Rivers Inlet has two rivers, the Chuckwalla and the Kilbella flowing into a common estuary. Both river systems support a rich and diverse array of wildlife. The largest grizzly bear I've ever seen was at the confluence of the two rivers. About one hundred years ago there was a large salmon cannery operating in Kilbella Bay. Now there is just an old boiler, some pilings and a couple of derelict cabins left. The logging camp which operated there for a number of years is gone now. It has been over a decade since any commercial salmon fishing has taken place in Rivers Inlet due to diminished sockeye returns, however there is still a viable sport fishery in the area where anglers can catch some of the worlds largest chinook or the feisty coho. There has been some salmon enhancement projects to help build up the chinook stocks on the Chuckwalla and Kilbella rivers in recent years but these efforts are now concerned with the nearby Wannock River (chinook) and Johnston Creek. (coho)
About 7 km away is the First Nations Wuikinuxv Village whose people include Kilbella Bay and the two large watersheds in their traditional territory.
While Kilbella Bay is much quieter these days the salmon, steelhead, bears, wolves and eagles still thrive there. Trumpeter swans and geese still stop by on their annual migrations and the Wuikinuxv people still value the area as they have always done.
I'll post another photo of one of my favourite places on the coast shortly - stay tuned.

Genetically Modified Atlantic Salmon. Spooky.

Aqua Bounty Technologies has created an Atlantic salmon whose genetic properties have been crossed with those of an eel-like creature called ocean pout. This genetically modified fish reaches market size twice as fast as regular Atlantic salmon; and while Aqua Bounty is not currently seeking approval to sell this fish in Canada, its quest for USA FDA approval is likely to have an impact on American trading partners.*

Graph Source: http://www.aquabounty.com/products/aquadvantage-295.aspx

If this fish is approved for market, it would be a landmark decision, as there are currently no genetically engineered animals approved for food anywhere in the world. What do you think about this new AquAdvantage Fish? Would you eat it if it came to the market in Canada? If wild fish stocks continue to decline, are genetically engineered fish just the inevitable way of the future?

*Read more about the implications of this fish on Canadian markets in the May 20th Globe and Mail.

So, Vern, Whatever Happened to those Rivers Inlet Sockeye

I moved from Rivers Inlet to Sointula in 1993 and even today I’m often stopped on the dock or at the Co-op store where someone invariably asks me, “So what happened to the Rivers Inlet (or Smith Inlet) sockeye, Vern?” This always leads to an interesting discussion as to the cause of the collapse of one of the largest sockeye runs on the B.C. coast. The fishing heritage of Sointula has been involved with the salmon runs in Rivers Inlet for generations, just as the Wuikinuxv people have relied on the sockeye arriving literally at the door step of their longhouses for some nine thousand years.

Since 1996 there have been only thousands of sockeye returning instead of hundreds of thousands.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.669984,-127.32588&z=10&t=h&hl=en

The link above will get you to a Google image of Rivers Inlet and the foot of Owikeno Lake.

A number of causes for the decline of sockeye salmon in this seemingly pristine fjord have been put forward. Overfishing, logging around the larger spawning streams in Owikeno Lake and varying ocean conditions due to changes in climate might have all played a role in causing the stock to collapse. What is even more alarming is that after the complete closure of the sockeye commercial fishery in 1995 the stock failed to rebuild.

Most of the commercial salmon fishermen that I’ve spoken with have not been up to Rivers Inlet for over a decade now and have often asked if anything is being done to determine the cause of the collapse of a once very productive fishery.

There are people working diligently in Rivers and Smiths to try and figure out why the sockeye returns have declined so precipitously.

The Rivers and Smith Salmon Ecosystems Planning Society was formed to bring together different parties and interests to pursue the common goal of stewardship for salmon and their ecosystems. www.rsseps.ca

Recent studies by Rick Routledge and his team of graduate students from SFU along with members of the Wuikinuxv and Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations are trying to figure out through a combination of traditional knowledge and science why the salmon have all-but-disappeared from this region. Their studies have focused on early marine survival of sockeye. Evidence so far seems to indicate increased mortality in the early marine phase of the sockeye life cycle as one of the reasons for the decline of the Rivers Inlet sockeye population.

http://www.stat.sfu.ca/~routledg/rivers.htm

It’s all a matter of timing.

When Owikeno Lake sockeye smolts, which are usually about half the size/weight of other nursery lake smolts, emigrate downstream to the inlet it is critical for them to grow quickly before heading out to the open ocean. If they are lucky, when they emerge from the Wannock River they will encounter a bloom of zooplankton (in turn fed by a phytoplankton bloom) comprised of mussel and barnacle larvae and other tiny crustaceans. However, if there has been heavy fresh water discharge from the Wannock resulting in an extensive layer of nutrient-poor, sometimes glacially turbid lake water covering much of the inlet, then the smolts will be under fed and under size by the time they migrate to the open ocean.

To substantiate and extend these preliminary findings, the current ecosystem will have a focus on understanding the driving forces of spring-summer plankton productivity.

Further studies on the whole Owikeno Lake/Rivers Inlet ecosystem are planned and valuable financial assistance has been provided by the Tula Foundation.

http://www.tula.ca/RESEARCH/coastalecology.html

For most people, the enduring mystery of salmon is their epic struggle upriver as they fight to spawn and continue the life cycle. But for those who study salmon in the ocean, who harvest salmon and whose ancient cultures still rely on salmon to this day the ocean biology of Pacific salmon is equally grand and considerably more mysterious. Answering some of the questions about what salmon do in the ocean and why they are motivated to do so may also be of considerable importance to maintaining the health of our fisheries, particularly given recent sharp downturns in ocean survival for most salmon stocks in southern BC.

Book Review of "Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis" by Alanna Mitchell

By Candace Newman

No matter where you live on this earth, every second breath you take comes from oxygen produced by plankton in the seas. Every third molecule of carbon dioxide you exhale is taken up by the ocean. Your every action or will profoundly affect the ocean - your life support system.

In Alanna Mitchell's new book, Sea Sick, she poignantly describes how human actions are having a measurable effect on the ocean. We are changing ocean salinity, temperature, volume, and function. From the deepest ocean basins to the surface sea currents, human impact is evident.

Mitchell relates her journey across five continents over two and a half years, investigating the state of the oceans, answering questions about what is really happening in the ocean and the outlook for its future. Speaking with internationally renowned scientists in Australia, the United States, Puerto Rico, Plymouth, Panama, Canada, Spain, China, and Tanzania, she describes startling evidence that the ocean is changing in a way and at a speed it never has before.

Mitchell’s journey begins in the Gulf of Mexico with a group of American scientists investigating the 'blob', a thick and dense, constantly moving layer of water that contains almost no oxygen. No oxygen means no fish and massive die-offs of crustaceans. What is startling is that this dead zone is no anomaly; the Gulf of Mexico low-oxygen zone is only one of several around the globe that are expanding and staying in areas for months at a time.

On the second leg of Mitchell’s journey, she explores ocean acidification with scientists in Puerto Rico. The scientists explain that the ocean is becoming increasingly acidic, and that the creatures that live in it are extremely sensitive to pH changes. Mitchell makes this point all too clear: if the pH in our bodies changed as much as it has already in the global ocean, we’d be dead.

Mitchell also travels to Halifax, where she investigates changes in fish populations, to China where marine management is challenged by the nation’s rapidly expanding population, and to Tanzania where ocean health has direct impacts on the nation as a whole.

Despite these vital signs that point to an emerging ocean crisis, Sea Sick concludes with a message of hope. Engulfed in a submersible with 13-cm thick walls, Mitchell descends to the bottom of the Atlantic and witnesses unidentified fish, giant squids, crabs, black lobsters, marine snow, and brightly coloured corals and sponges. Mitchell writes eloquently that there are still brilliant, thriving, and healthy places in the ocean, and that there is still time maintain our life support system. Hope will propel us to action, she writes, and that is exactly what the ocean needs right now.

Note: Candace Newman is the Marine Protected Areas Campaign Manager at the Living Oceans Society

Sea Choice announces a sustainable sushi guide!

I love sushi. I have yet to master the art of eating sushi gracefully, and probably never will, (uncoordinated people take note: sushi + first date = early end to the evening) but at least the folks at SeaChoice have made it easy for me to master the art of eating sushi in a sustainable way. Their new, wallet-sized guide features sustainability information for seafood commonly found on sushi menus by ranking items as green (Best Choice), yellow (Some Concerns) or red (Avoid) options.

A growing facet of the seafood market in Canada, sushi restaurants often offer species – including bluefin tuna and farmed salmon – that are harvested unsustainably. But there are many “Best Choice” alternatives. Canada’s Sustainable Sushi Guide provides a detailed list of seafood items that have healthy populations and come from well-managed fisheries that don’t cause significant harm to ocean environments and other sea life. The guide offers sushi chefs and diners alike great alternatives for their favourite menu items, including local albacore tuna and Dungeness crab, as well as several new ones like Arctic char or sablefish.

With the addition of the sushi card to SeaChoice's offerings, my sushi choices are relatively guilt-free. Now, if only I could find a pocket card with pointers on how I can eat my sustainable sushi, carry on a conversation, and leave the restaurant with a clean shirt and an invite for a second date, my sushi choices would be relatively embarrassment-free as well.


You can download your own SeaChoice pocket sushi guide here.

If you want to learn even more about sustainable sushi, read Casson Trenor's "Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time".

Note: The pictures of the sustainable sushi in this post are some of the delicious menu offerings from Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar in San Francisco.

A Stain Upon the Sea - Salmon Farming on the West Coast

This book, winner of the 2005 Roderick Haig-Brown BC Book Prize is a must read for anyone concerned about the controversies surrounding farmed fish on the west coast.

Stephen Hume, Alexandra Morton, Betty C. Keller, Rosella M. Leslie, Otto Langer, and Don Staniford all weigh in on the numerous threats posed by salmon farming to our wild Pacific salmon.

Stephen Hume, an award winning journalist, starts off the first chapter describing how he first heard about rumours that something dreadful was happening in the Broughton Archipelago where pink salmon runs were simply not showing up and that fish farms and sea lice congregating around fish farms might be playing a crucial role in diminishing the ability of wild salmon smolts to survive. Hume describes the beginnings of his research,“As I began fishing for answers, I found myself on a journey not unlike that of the salmon themselves, a journey that began on the spawning beds of little-known BC rivers, took me halfway around the world and brought me back, eventually, to the river where my own memories began.”

Hume eloquently describes the concerns of Heiltsuk and Nuxalk elders from the central coast and their zero tolerance toward open net cage salmon farms in their traditional territories. He interviews many of the people involved not only in the fish farm industry itself but scientists, environmentalists and crusaders for a more sustainable aquaculture industry. Traveling to Europe and the entire BC coast in search of answers he is adept at putting all sides of the issue into a very readable format but in the end he concludes that, “Now is the time for more of us to assert ourselves on behalf of our wilderness, parks and wildlife. Salmon farmers and other industries need to hear the message loud and clear: Operate safely, safely, sustainably and disease free and prove there is no risk to wild salmon stocks or take the business somewhere else.”

Don Staniford’s essay, entitled, Silent Spring of the Sea, quotes Rachel Carson’s prescient warning back in 1962: “What we have to face is not an occasional dose of poison which has accidentally got into some articles of food, but a persistent and continuous poisoning of the whole human environment.”

Staniford goes on to say that salmon farmer’s response to the disease and parasite problem has typically not been to reduce stocking densities, scale back on production or leave the sea bed fallow so it can recover. Instead they have resorted to an ever more powerful arsenal of dangerous and hazardous weapons, pressuring agricultural chemical companies to develop novel treatments for use in aquaculture.

I must confess that his descriptions of the chemical soup prevalent in net cage salmon farming was hard to digest and so I moved on to the next essay somewhat unnerved by the long list of toxic chemicals used with little or no regard to their effect on the environment surrounding the fish farms.

Betty Keller and Rosella M. Leslie explain the development of the industry in BC, from small family operations to large chain farms owned by a handful of multinational conglomerates.

Otto Langer, formerly with DFO, offers a blueprint for change after explaining in his chapter how conflicting mandates, poor habitat oversight and the seemingly disdainful disregard for what many people feel is an ecological disaster that got us into this mess in the first place.

Biologist Alexandra Morton has the last word as she documents her extensive research, the forming of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, and her frustration with the various bureaucracies’ ineptitude at coming up with solutions to the environmental problems associated with fish farms in her back yard, the Broughton Archipelago.

One commercial fisherman, after the collapse of the mainland inlet pink salmon runs in 2002, was quoted as saying, “I guess the scary thing is that Alex Morton predicted this would happen back in 2000. And she was right. Now she’s predicting extinction. I don’t think we can afford to wait to see if she’s right again.”

The book starts with an introduction by David Suzuki, a preface by Terry Glavin and concludes with a seven-point action plan to resolve the hazards of salmon farming.

After reading this book, and I know one of the authors as well as a number of the people mentioned in Stephen Hume’s essay, it is has become quite clear to me that the time to transition to closed containment salmon aquaculture here on the coast is long overdue.

Psychedelic Frogfish

Psychedelic Frogfish jetting Copyright:David Hall/seaphotos.com

When I read about this new species over the weekend, it's name caught my eye and as an old fishin' hippie I knew I had to blog on this one!

University of Washington fish biologist Ted Pietsch knew he was looking at something distinct when a photo of this pink coloured specimen showed up in his email box last year. The strange fish was first spotted by divers with Mukulu Divers in Ambon Harbor near Bali, Indonesia in January 2008. More than a dozen fish have since been spotted in 5 to 8 metres of water near a commercial jetty in the busy harbour. After a year of DNA analysis Ted's team was able to determine that they had identified a new species; Histiophryne psychedelica. Their work will be published in next month's issue of Copeia. You can find lots of information and more great photos there.
The 10 cm fish has a flat head and eyes facing forward meaning that it could have stereoscopic visionand able to see in three dimensions - something that fish with eyes on either sides of their heads are not able to attain. It uses it's fins almost like hands to grasp coral and clambers across reefs in a bumbling fashion. It can also propel itself by gulping water then spitting it out through it's gills. Check out this video link for a look at this amazing creature;
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1509319618/bctid14385792001

The Coolest Deep Sea Fish Ever...

... according to me.

Just when I think that the ocean can't amaze me any more than it already has, it goes and does it again:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MBARIvideo

Check out this video made by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


This deep sea fish, called the barreleye, or macropina microstoma, "has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish's tubular eyes are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward [...] when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils." 1

Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project

A POST Scientist checks the growth of a tagged salmon smolt

Photo Credit: POST Photo Gallery [www.postcoml.org]

The Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST) is a resource for "tracking the movement and estimated survival of marine animals along the West Coast of North America, using acoustic transmitters implanted in a variety of species, and a series of receivers running in lines across the continental shelf."1 POST began its tracking work in 2001, focusing specifically on finding out what happens to salmon when they leave the rivers and enter the ocean. Today, with additional funders, POST has expanded from just studying salmon migration to tracking a vast array of marine life on the West Coast.

An acoustic unit is deployed. Each unit is equipped with a yellow flotation device, white acoustic modem, and black acoustic receiver. Photo Credit: POST Photo Gallery [www.postcoml.org]

Tools such as the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project are helpful in understanding key aspects of the biology of marine species and our oceans. When I look at POST from a marine planning perspective, I am reminded that our entire ecosystem is important to planning; and that fresh water systems are indeed quite connected to the rest of the ocean.

To learn more about POST, and to watch an informative video about how it works, visit: http://www.postcoml.org/

Community-Supported Fisheries

Port Clyde, a small fishing village (at a population of 1000, it's only a little bigger than Sointula) off the coast of Maine, has found an innovative (and sustainable!) way to save its local fishing economy: community supported fisheries. The idea behind community supported fisheries is simple: people in the community pay a local fishing cooperative an up-front fee to receive a weekly ration of the in-season catch (shrimp in the winter and groundfish in the summer). Fishermen get a higher price for their product (because they have eliminated the middle-men buyers and sellers who take their own cut of the profits), and the community gets a weekly supply of fresh-caught seafood.

The Port Clyde fishermen's cooperative recognizes the integral role of healthy oceans in a thriving economy, and each member of the cooperative has agreed to fish according to certain practices of sustainability, such as choosing fishing gear that offers lower bycatch and supporting seasonal fishing closures. You can read more about the Port Clyde cooperative in this Washington Post article.

Would this type of community-supported fishery work here on the North Island? Why or why not?

Clownfish

Studies are showing that the rising acidity of our oceans is causing changes in certain fish characteristics. For example, a recent study showed that clownfish (who rely on smell when searching for a home) lost some of their sense of smell when they grew and developed in waters that had high acidity levels. This study has the overall implications that the falling pH of our oceans may give fish a biologically harder chance of survival. The change in sensory perception was only applied to clownfish in this study, and has yet to be studied with other fish.

Fish in Japan

The Japan Times Online recently published an interesting article about the future of fish as an integral part of Japan's daily diet. In Japan, people eat more fish than in any other country (nearly 70 KG per capita per year) and Japan's need for seafood has led the people to over fish their own waters and look more and more towards their North American trade partners to provide this culturally important diet staple. A lot of the seafood that we eat in Canada and the United States also has a strong Japanese influence: it seems as though a new sushi restaurant pops up every day in Vancouver. Some of the most coveted types of fish used in sushi are also the species that are most at risk for extinction, such as the bluefin tuna.



Stumbling across the thought-provoking article about the future of seafood in the Japan Times and watching this Washington Post video about bluefin tuna made me curious to learn more about the issue. Are there lessons that we can learn from the Japanese experience? How does the state of Japan's oceans affect the state of our oceans here in Canada?

Wanted: Big, Old, Fat, Fecund Females

Alas, my title speaks to big, old, fat, fecund female FISH - humans need not apply. For years, fisheries management techniques have guided fishermen to select the large individuals of targeted stocks, either by using size-selective gear or by releasing the smaller fish back into the ocean. This type of conservation technique was put in place with the understanding that we will sustain the stock by allowing younger, smaller individuals to grow to the reproductive age. So, for years, fishermen have caught the bigger, older, fish.
However, recent research on species evolution has thrown these practices into question: now, it seems, we need those big, old, fat fish to sustain our seas. Research indicates that removing larger, older individuals of a population, especially reproducing females, may actually undermine stock replenishment. Larger, older females often produce significantly more and stronger offspring than the smaller ones. "The larvae of these older females may also be larger, with greater fat reserves that can aid growth and survival [...] Older females can also have earlier and/or longer spawning seasons than younger, smaller females, and the fact of their longer lives may allow them to outlive periods of low larval recruitment." [1] This idea has come to be known as the BOFFFF (Big Old Fat Fecund Female Fish) hypothesis, developed by Steven Berkeley at the University of California at Santa Cruz with his study of Pacific rockfish.

There are now studies that show how removing BOFFFFs and other large adults from our oceans can result in evolutionary changes over time. A recent New York Times article discusses how human acts of selection run counter to the acts of selection found in nature:

Predators typically take “the newly born or the nearly dead,” Dr. Darimont said. For predators, targeting healthy adults can be dangerous, and some predator fish cannot even open their mouths wide enough to eat adult prey. Animals raised as livestock are typically slaughtered relatively young, he said, and farmers and breeders retain the most robust and fertile adults to grow their herds or flocks.

But commercial fishing nets and other gear that comply with conservation regulations typically trap large fish while letting smaller ones escape. Trophy hunters typically seek out the largest animals. And for some fish in some areas, as much as 50, 60 or even 80 percent of the stock may be caught every year.

“Targeting large, reproducing adults and taking so many of them in a population in a given year — that creates this ideal recipe for rapid trait change,” Dr. Darimont said.

There still needs to be much more research done on the topic of fisheries-induced evolution, but as the initial studies show, big adult individuals might be a lot more important to our healthy oceans than we realize.

"Why Storms are Good News for Fishermen"

I always knew that weather played a role in how many fish I caught on a given day. I'm a fair weather fisher, so if the weather is bad, I stay at home! But, for those more dedicated fishermen and fisherwomen (sidenote: are women fisherMEN as well?) and for those who fish for a living, it turns out that the weather plays a pretty important role in a given fishing harvest.

According to an article in the New Scientist, individual storms or particularly cold winters can lead to bumper fish harvests years later:

In many cases [...] it comes down to the survival of the young. "It's all about making it through that first summer," says Nicholas Bond of the University of Washington in Seattle

Take the walleye pollock in the Bering Sea off Alaska, the basis of the largest single fishery in the world. [...] When Bond looked at the years in which high numbers of young pollocks survived, he found they were characterised by summer storms.

Storms matter because they bring up deep water rich in the nutrients essential for the growth of phytoplankton. "These events essentially fertilise the oceans," says Bond. During calm summers, phytoplankton growth slows early as the nutrients brought up by winter storms are used up. Summer storms refresh the surface waters, allowing phytoplankton to continue thriving - and young pollock to grow fat.

While predicting individual storms is not possible, says Bond, predicting their effects is. Three years after a stormy summer, when pollock that hatched in the good year become large enough to be caught, catches will rise. Recent falls in pollock numbers could be partly due to a series of calm, warm summers, he says, although 2006 was a good year for young pollock."

The case of the pollock mentioned above is just one example of harvest variability that is shown with changing weather conditions. Also mentioned in this article are salmon, crab, cod, tuna, and anchovies. Having climatic insight into a given fishing season's potential yield, 3 years in advance, could help to reverse the effects of the mismanagement of our fisheries here on the Pacific North Coast.

With many other fisheries teetering on the brink, these new insights could prove vital. If we can predict how fish numbers will vary naturally months or even years in advance, managers can reduce quotas before stocks are decimated, or increase them when conditions are favourable.

To read more about how different marine species are impacted by a change in climate, visit the full article in issue 2689 of the New Scientist.

Pacific Salmon Treaty

On Monday, Canada and the United States renewed the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), first signed in 1985. Some changes were made to the PST, and the renewed chapters "will help to ensure the long-term sustainability of Pacific salmon stocks while supporting an economically viable fishing industry on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border".

While I applaud the Honorable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, (in picture) for continuing to keep long-term sustainability of Pacific salmon stocks on the agenda, I can't help but feel a little pessimistic. This treaty was first signed 24 years ago, and for the past 24 years, fish population and ocean health has declined - largely a result of poor fisheries management practices.

The renewed treaty will remain in place until 2018, at which point I assume it will be reviewed and renewed again. Or perhaps by that time, it will no longer be necessary, because there will be no remaining wild Pacific salmon to protect.

A gloomy thought...

Roger

The recent winner of the J Paul Getty award for conservation is a champion of marine planning, and he comes from a small coastal community, just like my hometown, Port McNeill. This marine-conservation champion's name is Roger and fishing is one of the most important sources of income for those in his community. Local fishermen use nets, lines, and spear diving to catch fish. In an interview with the BBC, this prize-winner mentions that he has seen fish stocks rapidly decline over the years in his village, and he is worried about the local corals and sea grass that are being destroyed by bottom-dragging fishing techniques. In his small coastal town, he sees the impacts that unsustainable practices have on the livelihood of his villages, and has spent much of his time advocating for community-managed marine protected areas.

It is a hard job to get people to think about the sustainability of the oceans; and four hours away in the capital city, people seem too far removed to understand or to really think much about the future of the oceans.

All of Roger's concerns sound like concerns that we have have on the Pacific North Coast. Is he from Sointula, Sandspit, or perhaps Prince Rupert?

Actually, he's from Africa.

Samba Roger, living in Andavadoaka, a fishing community on the island of Madagascar, is just one example of the type of people who are taking action to preserve our ocean ecosystems worldwide.



To see a great photo presentation about Samba Roger, click here.

How We Fish Matters: Addressing the Ecological Impacts of Canadian Fishing Gear

The Living Oceans Society, Ecology Action Centre, and Marine Conservation Biology Institute have released a study that ranks the impacts of 13 different gear types used for fishing in Canada. This study was completed in three stages: first, there was a
Skates - Photo courtesy of John Driscoll
literature review of existing scientific studies on the impacts of fishing gear; next, a rating of the impacts of fishing gear by fishermen, scientists, and conservation professionals; and finally a survey of 97 professionals from different sectors working with fisheries where respondents ranked the ecological impacts of 13 different gear types.

This study found that bottom trawl, bottom gillnet, dredge, and bottom longline are the gears that cause the greatest impact on habitat and discarded bycatch. Harpoon, dive, and hook and line are the fishing methods that result in the least impacts on habitat and discarded bycatch.

The main recommendations (taken directly from the study) are as follows:

1. Fisheries managers should immediately implement ecologically risk averse strategies to minimize the impacts of fishing gear on habitat and bycatch. These strategies include habitat protection, and access to fishing grounds and quota allocations based on gear substitution.

2. Adequate monitoring, research and data collection on fishing gear impacts to habitat and non-target species must be undertaken, and made publicly available, to support ecosystem and spatial management practices.

3. Implement, inform and develop policies and management practices that prioritize the minimization of habitat destruction and incidental catch and discarding of target and non-target species.

You can access the LOS press release, and the full report on the LOS website.

You can also read the media coverage of this report in:
Globe and Mail
Vancouver Sun
National Post
The Canadian Press
Times Colonist