“Not on my watch”
Last year the Upper Skeena coho appeared flirting with extinction. Minister Anderson took strong, decisive measures to keep the fishers off and let the coho have a chance to survive. They did.
Who’s on watch now?
By the first week of May we should hear the year 2000 fishing plan. All signs point to fewer fishing restrictions.
There appears to be an emerging consensus among management biologists that the whole “upper Skeena” can be treated as one “conservation unit” (implying this population is “weedy” and not closely tied to any narrow freshwater habitat).
All eyes turned toward PSARC meeting
Read closely, the March PSARC meeting dealing with BC salmon was hesitant to accept the “all clear” asking for more detailed documentation and tangible targets.
"--after considerable discussion -- committee could not endorse the management recommendations without documentation detailed management plan without formally defined Limit Reference Points and Target Reference points for the subject stocks”. --page 13
In-season management now possible?
First you have to accept there exist “indicator” stocks. The coastal Lachmach and the Bulkley Toboggan plus the Fort Babine are the “stocks” biologist have the best data on. Two of the 3 are hatchery stocks. The wire tags make them easily identifiable.
Alaska, but not BC, monitor those fish tags in their fishing fleet closely (daily?)
Last year, Leon Shaul of the ADF&G predicted the Babine run strength in July and was so close to the final tally that it is both scary and promising. (see his email where he describes methods and rationale behind his prediction).
Hatcheries on the Skeena watershed – of interest here is Fort Babine and Toboggan along with the unenhanced Lachmach in Prince Rupert area (Nass watershed Work Channel). Upper Skeena coho purple areas below right.
Please note the irony of it all
Local fishers have long and bitterly cursed their Alaskan
peers just across the border for being the root cause of the ‘missing’ BC salmon (and not BC over-fishing).
Now, those same cursed fishers are
perhaps going to provide the data that will allow BC guys to fish—call it our “early
warning system” --- To be useful (comparable) the effort in Alaska should remain
‘constant’ to the near past. For an insightful discussion see Leon Shaul’s 2nd
email.
Background info
Graph shows Skeena coho escapement for broad areas. How can all those smaller populations be managed? The Skeena Sockeye are much simpler being about 90% enhanced Babine stock.
In fact when those enhanced fish really took off the coho began their decline.
Where is the link? Probably in the ocean, though the easier target would be increased fishing effort on the stronger Skeena sockeye by gillnet fleet.
Compare broad trends decreasing coho and increasing sockeye.
A closer look becomes more confusing
The two graphs below dis-aggregate the data from graphs above--- and patterns become less apparent.
Of course the data itself is suspect. Coho counting in the upper Skeena was not a high priority. Pity.
Suggestions
Somehow the downstream sockeye catch must “pay for” the upriver conservation. Perhaps a levy?
Still the science is not clear cut and that seems like the weakest point just now.
How good are “indicators?” Especially when they are hatchery based.
Someone needs to have a very close look at the DNA evidence being used to argue homogeneity of “upper Skeena” population.
Shaul notes, in passing, the run timing and routes are different for the enhanced Babine and Toboggan runs.
Background to Conservation Units
Wild Salmon Principle Two:
Wild Pacific salmon will be managed and conserved as aggregates of local populations called conservation units. The goal of maximizing sustainable benefits from local populations must be balanced against the cost and practicality of doing so. Thousands of local populations exist in British Columbia alone and it is logistically impossible to manage each population individually. Furthermore, many salmon fisheries harvest mixtures of populations and species and there are limits to how selectively populations can be harvested. However, it should be possible to conserve the genetic diversity of local populations, as required under Principle one, by managing conservation units defined as aggregates of closely related populations with similar productivity and vulnerability to fisheries. -- Wild Salmon Principle Three: Minimum and target levels of abundance will be determined for each conservation unit. (my emphasis)
http://www-comm.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/english/release/bckgrnd/2000/bg0007.htm