This letter was addressed to MP John Weston and copied to the Chief publication.
Editor,
Our local 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee is writing to express our extreme dismay at news that DFO is reporting 11 million sockeye salmon have not returned to the Fraser River. This has impacted the local area on the Birkenhead River in Pemberton. The colossal collapse is something that cannot be ignored.
Initial comments from high-ranking DFO officials are very worrisome in the lack of recognition of a significant factor in this collapse. Barry Rosenburger, DFO area director for the B.C. Interior, describes the Fraser sockeye collapse as unexpected and that DFO doesn't know what happened (Globe and Mail, Aug. 13, 2009). But the next day he goes on to say it does not look like fish farms are responsible (BCLocalNews.com).
On Aug. 15, a letter from Paul Sprout, Pacific Region Director for DFO, was published in the Globe and Mail: "Sea lice from fish farms are not the explanation of this year's extremely poor marine survival of Fraser River sockeye..."
What science did Sprout and Rosenburger use to inform the public that fish farms are not responsible for this sockeye collapse?
Two of your highest ranking employees involved with this fishery have publicly exonerated the fish farmers, an industry associated with catastrophic salmon collapse worldwide (Ford and Myers 2008) and here in B.C. (Krkosek et al 2007).
The most recent past catastrophic B.C. wild salmon collapse was in 2002 when 99 per cent of the Broughton pink salmon failed to return. The Pink Salmon Action Plan (http://www.fish.bc.ca/node/135) temporarily removed farm salmon from the Broughton pink salmon migration route and the next generation of pink salmon returned at the highest survivorship ever recorded for the species (Beamish et al 2006). That management decision was reversed and the stock collapsed again.
Dr. Brian Riddell of the Pacific Salmon Foundation suggests that answers to the fate of these sockeye may lie in what happened to them right after they left the Fraser River, before they reached the open ocean.
Alexandra Morton and others did examine this run of sockeye shortly after they left the Fraser River. She looked at about 350 of this generation of Fraser sockeye when they went to sea in 2007 and they had up to 28 sea lice (each).
The sea lice were all young lice, which means they got them in the vicinity of where we were sampling, which was near the fish farms in the Discovery Islands near Campbell River.
I am not saying that fish farms resulted in the loss of all 11 million missing Fraser sockeye, but fish farms certainly played a significant role.
I urge you to bring this to Fisheries Minister Shea's attention. To see high ranking DFO representatives dismissing the impact of these salmon farms on the Fraser sockeye collapse is extremely concerning. These missing sockeye did swim through fish farm effluent.
Rather than exempting fish farms from your investigation you must order complete disclosure of the health and number of farm salmon on the missing Fraser sockeye migration route in 2006-present.
Our local 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee needs to know why DFO is exonerating fish farms in the first few days of the investigation.
We hope that you urge Minister Shea to visit our riding to hear our concerns.
Dave Brown Vice Chair
John Wright Chair
老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee
