Massive sockeye salmon run hits Fraser River
By CBC News
CBC News
Fishermen on B.C.'s Fraser River are out on the water preparing for one of the biggest runs of sockeye salmon in nearly 100 years, but it's not clear what's going to happen to all the unexpected fish.

Fishermen on B.C.'s Fraser River are out on the water preparing for one of the biggest runs of sockeye salmon in nearly 100 years, but it's not clear what's going to happen to all the unexpected fish.

On Tuesday, the Pacific Salmon Commission announced it expects as many as 25 million fish will return to the Fraser this season.

That's the largest return since 1913 and more than double what was forecast just a few weeks ago.

Phil Eidsvik with the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition said it's great news for the industry that works the river mouth south of Vancouver.

"We're not surprised that the run size was increased. We've been seeing lots of fish in the river and very large test sets in Johnstone Strait and we're still hearing reports of sockeye being caught in the Queen Charlotte Islands, on the northern tip, so we expected it to be upgraded," said Eidsvik.

The Fraser River fishery is expected to be open for 32 hours starting at noon on Wednesday.
Processors not ready

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is allowing about 30 per cent to be harvested, or about seven million fish.

The news comes after three years of returns so low the federal government launched a public inquiry. Fish packing plants and processors are already reporting that, after three years of low harvests, they are no longer ready to handle such a large harvest.

But UBC fisheries Prof. Carl Walters said he is also concerned the 30 per cent harvest rate could mean millions of salmon die before reaching their spawn grounds higher up the river.

"They will be physically unable to enter the river. The river will be completely jammed with fish," he said.

"We could see five million dead fish laying in Shuswap Lake at the mouth of the Adams River. To me, this would be an utterly irresponsible catastrophe," he said.

However, Department of Fisheries and Oceans area director Barry Rosenberger said sockeye are very well managed and the department has a proven history of adjusting harvest numbers as the projected returns change.
No ocean monitoring

"I think the in-season management is the important part. The forecast is important in the scheme of things, but you have to have the management, the in-season tools, and I think that's the part that we've demonstrated. We are making the right kinds of decisions," said Rosenberger.

In 2009, the return was so low the federal government called a public inquiry to examine the apparent collapse of the Fraser River sockeye fishery. Fewer than 1.5 million sockeye returned to the Fraser River, a fraction of the 11 million forecast.

The Cohen Commission began its hearing in Vancouver in June. Critics believe lice and other contaminants from fish farms are deadly to wild salmon, but the discussion paper said Fraser River sockeye experience a "suite of impacts" that must all be evaluated in order to understand the collapse.

Walters said it's not clear why the fish bounced back this season because there's no way to monitor the salmon when they're in the ocean, which is the time when survival rates are established.

"We think there's some complicated kind of delayed ecological interaction effects that a big run can cause poor survival down the road and maybe low runs can cause good survival down the road, but we don't understand the mechanisms at all," said Walters.