Greg Taylor: Holding DFO to Account on Endangered Chinook - Watershed Watch - Updated Nov 19, 2020

Go read the Watershed Watch take on dangerously declining chinook salmon [the rest are not doing well either]. They have much to say that is useful: https://watershedwatch.ca/greg-taylor-holding-dfo-to-account-on-endangered-chinook/?mc_cid=1f4d80c698&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Here is my comment on their short document, as in do read what they have to say.

DFO and the SFAB set the annual rec take, It is now so low the industry is having trouble surviving. ENGOs should have a member of theirs who also fishes attend SFAB meetings and get the information that is used each year. If the rec fish were stopped that would be up to a $2.52B loss for the economy. The solution here is to immediately put out 12 ocean netpens of 2 million chinook fry each, each of which is diploided or triploided and fin clipped. The most important from immediate killer whale (SRKWs) food is the Cowichan because they circle the Strait of Georgia for a year or more before going offshore.

Netpen fish cannot spawn, do not return to rivers, but to the saltwater site of the netpen, where an Indigenous fishery could mop up the returnees, with the excess for others. This would save the SRKWs and put fish that can be distinguished by the missing adipose fin, for retention. There is no damaging of genes because they cannot spawn. But DFO needs to be pushed because they tried putting 35M Vedder chinook, that will return in four years. That means SRKWs go south for 4 years with no food. The netpen approach puts fish in the water right now. Also, along with the Robertson Creek and Cowichan stock, the Nitinat should be used too. At the terminal end the sexless returnees should be picked up in big buckets by helicopters, and, go directly to an already-identified SRKW pod (reduces the transit time from pick up to drop off) and drop them in front of them so they have food as of this September and every year hence from the netpens. If we don't do netpens, because DFO has been managing salmon into extinction for 50 years, it will just finish the job with their too little too late approach, and the SRKWs will die, too.

The BC govt needs to start a new program under the Wild Salmon Secretariat directly aimed at habitat restoration and get on with the job that DFO has failed to do. Delivered through the Pacific Salmon Foundation who leverages cash 4 to 7 times, a sizeable restoration program for in river work by those 300,000 sporties who believe in bringing salmon back, along with our ENGO allies.

Note that the $142M cash from DFO and BC pretty much is utilized for such big, expensive, longterm projects, that virtually no money is going to the endless list of small, inexpensive projects required across the province to get sporties/ENGOs in streams with their gumboots on, where the bulk of all restoration work is needed. And thus immediate rehabilitation of at peril salmon stocks.

As well, fish farms need to come out of the water. I list shows 320 on-land farms already around the world, so this is easy, not hard. And my list of global press now approaches 500, as in the enthusiasm for on-land is unmistakable.
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Now an update. The WWS's take on fall 2020 spawning is here: https://watershedwatch.ca/greg-taylor-an-overview-of-2020-salmon-returns/?mc_cid=e211356752&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

It is not easy reading, with runs very low across the province.

DFO, SRKWs And Funding, Yet again? Yes, Yet Again

This post covers two items: 1. DFO's SRKW/fishery plan for 2019 and 2. Applying for funding for freshwater habitat restoration projects.


1. DFO's site on SRKW PDF material is:  https://fisheriesandoceanscanada.app.box.com/s/0vp0qrlitw3lu9dj8zn061rpf4bw9251.

This is the DFO plan for dealing with SRKW and salmon, the May 10, 2019 PDF: https://fisheriesandoceanscanada.app.box.com/s/0vp0qrlitw3lu9dj8zn061rpf4bw9251/file/455774025947.

The main items are: 
 

•    Five Technical Working Groups (TWGs) were established to provide advice 

     on immediate and longer-term recovery measures:

       Prey Availability

       Sanctuaries  

       Large Vessel Noise 

       General Vessel Noise 

       Contaminants

      And:

              Included technical and subject matter experts from Indigenous groups,

            environmental organizations, academia, commercial and recreational

         harvesters, shipping, other levels of government, Washington State and others.

         See the map on slide 12 for closed areas in Juan de Fuca, Swiftsure and WCVI. 

         There are fishing closures, sanctuary closures, voluntary non-fishing, depthsounder closures

         and minimum distances from killer whales. The closure from Port Renfrew to 

         Sheringham affects us the most. To the east of Victoria, there are closures in the 

          islands, for example, Pender and Saturna.

         Slide 15 shows the closures, etc. in the Gulf Islands from Sidney to the north. 

         Oddly, slide 16 at the Fraser mouth, includes no closures. I wonder why? 

         Slide 17 is the meat of the matter from our perspective, including increasing chinook, 
         though they mention only 2019 release of Harrison chinook, the late Juan de Fuca fish,
         to bring and additional 35,000 adult fish back starting in 2023. 

          Note that my plan uses Cowichan, Nitinat and Robertson Creek Chinook to pump in
          fish in 2019 with many Cowichan circling Strait of Georgia for a year or so, meaning 
          SRKW food starting in 2020 - not three years later in 2023. My approach would feed 
          all of Juan de Fuca, and if the Quinsam hatchery was used to put out Campbell, 
          Puntledge and Nanaimo stocks, they, too would be in larger numbers by 2023, 
          just as DFO's Fraser program aims. I think this is too long for peanut head SRKWs to 
         wait, but my initial plan is to put fish for food by 2020. 

Her   Here is my plan: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales.html.

          Many of the slides that follow, concern vessel noise, distance, and traffic separation 
          zones. 

          Slide 26 has useful links for sport fishers: where you can get fisheries notices, and 
          specific measures in the areas you want to fish.

For example, here is the DFO plan for fisheries:

"Subject: FN0395-COMMERCIAL, RECREATIONAL and ABORIGINAL - Salmon - 

Fraser Chinook 2019 Management Measures - Vancouver Island, Fraser Interior 

and North Coast, and Coast-wide Recreational Annual Aggregates - Amendment 

to FN0377."

You can get updates by email. Go here to view or subscribe to fisheries notices: 

 http://notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm.

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Now, moving to the next item of how to get involved in bringing back wild salmon, as in get some funding: 2. This is DFO's funding link for getting money for freshwater habitat restoration projects, etc.: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/initiatives/fish-fund-bc-fonds-peche-cb/apply-demande-page01-eng.html.

Read the criteria. They will not result in money being well spent. I pointed out to Min. Wilkinson that because it focuses on innovation and new technology, it is not addressing the most important issue with salmon which is straight forward freshwater habitat restoration. This is about putting on gumboots and getting in a river to fix it, and for business donation of heavy equipment where needed. It is also for using the PSF for money leveraging, and for the WSAC, as a provincial body, to make a made in BC answer.

See this for my comments: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/04/salmon-restoration-and-innovation-fund.html.

The point is that the criteria are worded in such a way that the major item, freshwater habitat restoration for wild BC salmon, is not going to receive the money it should.

DFO's west coast Regional Director, Cheryl Webb, Ecosystems Management, Pacific Region had this to say to me: I have put her letter on this link: https://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.com/2019/05/cheryl-webb-note-to-dcr-wild-bc-salmon.html , which is the post just before this post.

Here are some of her weasel words:

"Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) understands the importance of the fishery resource to all who depend on it for their sustenance, livelihood, and recreation. DFO works to protect and conserve marine and freshwater ecosystems and the living resources they support."

These words ring hollow to anyone who lives in BC, so are they only written to sound good to DFO staff in Ottawa?

The words ring hollow because DFO has been managing SRKWs and wild BC salmon into extinction for the past 50 years. Here is my first post on this issue: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales.html. The fundamentals of this issue are: $$ for freshwater habitat restoration and netpens of chinook to put SRKW food in the water as soon as possible. This post has been viewed 10,000 times.

Cheryl Webb goes on:

"This fund is a critical collaboration for Canada and British Columbia, as BC’s land- and water-use management responsibilities have a great impact on fish stocks." 

This is the reason why, when I contact the BC govt or WSAC - the wild salmon advisory council - I tell them that with their structure being brought into existence for this issue, finally gives BC the complete machinery it needs to move on from DFO and do something that actually saves BC salmon - and saves them from DFO in the far oft land of Ottawa, where they should stay. Take their money give it to the Pacific Salmon Foundation and solve the problem - a made in BC solution as John Horgan might say.

Cheryl goes on:

"SEP’s Resource Restoration Unit supports a multitude of partnerships and projects that contribute to salmon habitat restoration. And the Coastal Restoration Fund has provided over $18.6 million to fund restoration projects in freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats in British Columbia."

The way the whole paragraph reads is that the Salmon Enhancement Program has a large part that is about habitat restoration; however, the key weasel word is: And, the paragraph says SEP does habitat restoration, so one assumes that the Coastal Restoration Fund is a SEP program. But go and look at it, as it is not: http://dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/crf-frc/apply-presenter/page-01-eng.html.

The CRF is an existing program, and is not a SEP program - which is primarily about putting salmon fry in the water. It is only the weasel word And that has a normal human being assuming the SEP, who we trust, has the money. Further, the program funding is over for this year, and is most about Indigenous, and the other ocean coasts of Canada. 

In other words, most of this money is spent elsewhere, not in BC, and has already been spent. Look on the eligible projects page and it will have virtually nothing to do with habitat restoration. Neither do the expenses part of it.

I should add that I could find no words that link the project to the SEP program in BC - and there are loads of text pages and links. Nor do I find any budget figures to substantiate Cheryl's $18.6M spent 'in' BC; however, the map in the documents makes it clear that BC would be the small recipient in this across-Canada program.

Cheryl goes on:

"In addition, the Department funds and delivers the Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program (RFCPP). The RFCPP was developed to support projects led by recreational fishing and angling groups, as well as conservation organizations, aimed at improving the conservation of recreational fisheries habitat."

See: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/pnw-ppe/rfcpp-ppcpr/index-eng.html.

Here is what I see: it is an across Canada program of only $8.6M. In 2017/18 it spent $4M, and presumably spent the same in 18/19, so the max that is left is $.6M for 2019. So, if it is across Canada that means .6/10 = .06M or $60,000 for BC this year. And, there is more, DFO is looking more kindly at Indigenous projects for receiving funding, Doesn't that mean at best, we are looking at half of that, or $30,000 for Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program in BC this year?

Is it just me that sees weasel words everywhere I look, or is it that there are weasel words everywhere I/we look, when it comes to dealing with DFO?

Hmm.

DFO SRKW Measures 2019

DFO has come up with measures for protecting southern resident killer whales (SRKWs) in 2019. They include draconian sport fishing closures, among other things, and are summarized in a PDF released in April 2019. I have sent the Excel Spreadsheet PDF to members of my sport fishing list, but I can't find a way to load it to this site. If you want it, send me a note/leave me a comment at the bottom of this post and I'll send it your way.

In summary, the problem is this: DFO has managed both salmon and killer whales into extinction for the past 50 years. Now, faced with public outrage, it is closing sport and commercial fishing for chinook, to try and save extinction level killer whales with extinction levels of chinook. It's the wrong approach, just ensuring that both become extinct.

See my post on what needs to be done: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales.html. Basically it is: fresh water habitat restoration and a dozen netpens of 2M marked, sterile chinook each for at least 10 years.

Now, in the note that goes along with the current PDF, DFO says it is taking ‘a precautionary, science-based approach to the protection and recovery of SRKW.’

The problem is that DFO talks about science, but it refuses to use it, as well as the precautionary principle unless it suits their purposes. See this:  https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/02/evidence-and-science-based-decisions-at.html.

In other words, don't expect DFO to do the precautionary thing, and expect it to close sport fishing, as SRKWs plummet to extinction, and then, from their point of view, both problems are solved.

Here is a brief summary of the PDF:

Slide 8: 

Prey - solutions include:

·      * Area-based fishery closures

·      *   Mobile (bubble) closures/fishery avoidance zones 

*   * Sanctuary – hmm?

Slide 9 - Technical Working Groups (TWGs):

-        *  Salmon habitat rehabilitation - this sounds good, but if you are looking to get some money to do a project, it has to be new technology with innovation. I told DFO that what is needed is people to get their gumboots on and do some freshwater habitat restoration. DFO has not responded. I said this to them: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/04/salmon-restoration-and-innovation-fund.html.

-       *  Salmon enhancement - this sounds good, but no details as yet. Are we talking sterilized fish? Or marked fish, so a fishery can mop up returnees, but not wild fish? And, are we talking epigenetics?

-      *  Chinook-predator interactions

-      * Forage fish management - does this include stopping the herring roe fishery that DFO says is hunky dory, but there are lots of documents around, that I have seen, preceding the documents it is now using to say things are swell, that point out the stock now fished is the last one left, and nowhere near as big as it used to be.

DFO says answers are to come in June, 2019

Slide 12: 

* Critical habitat 

*Proposed Enhanced Management Areas 

* Key Foraging Areas

In our area: All of Juan de Fuca, including Laperouse and Swiftsure banks, past Victoria and the islands to the mouth of the Fraser. Either closed or no-go zones.

Slide 14: Context: Prey Availability.

*Recognition that long-term rebuilding of Chinook will be key to SRKW recovery

*Reduced fisheries. This sounds good, but the proof is in the pudding, for example, DFO could close fisheries and let chinook bring themselves back rather than enhancement and freshwater habitat restoration. With climate change and fish farm effects, it is unlikely that the stocks will come back.

Slide 16:

Scenario A Closure of sport fishing in 20-4 and 20-5 and Swiftsure Bank.

Slide 18:

Scenario B: Closure of sport fishing in Scenario A as well as extended areas adjacent to Swiftsure Bank (SB), including SB.

Slide 24:

Fishing, small boat measures, includes voluntary measures like turning off depthsounders when not in use. Mandatory 400m approach distance, and go-slow measures with in 1000m, along with no-go areas, including SB.

Do send DFO your thoughts on its approach. The email to mail to is: DFO.SRKW-ERS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. 

Note that I have figured out the sport fishery brings in $2.52B for fresh- and salt-water in BC. This is far bigger than the figure DFO uses. Here is how I figured it out: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2015/05/salmonfishing-revenue-towers-over.html.

Towns like Port Renfrew, Bamfield and others are going to go bust under DFO's plan. Please send in some critical comments. Remember, it is netpens of sterile chinook that will solve the problem as soon as possible, while habitat restoration goes on, which is a long term project. We need both things, as well as epigenetic enhancement of chinook stocks ASAP, for example, the Nitinat chinook, along with Conuma, Robertson Creek and Cowichan on Van Isle. Then DFO should do some enhancement of Fraser streams, like the proposal for Willow Creek.