Fisheries researcher free to talk to colleagues, salmon inquiry hears
By Gordon Hoekstra, Postmedia News August 24, 2011
VANCOUVER — The Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not prevent fisheries biologist Kristi Miller from talking to other scientists or publishing her work on possible factors that could be harming Fraser River sockeye, the Cohen Commission heard Wednesday.
Miller told the inquiry she was told only that she could not talk publicly about her work until she first presented her testimony at the inquiry.
"As scientists, we do our research, we come up with our conclusions, we write our papers, and there's nothing to stop us from publishing our research," said Miller, head of molecular genetics at DFO's Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C.
Miller and her colleagues turned up evidence that many sockeye enter the Fraser in a compromised state, possibly because of viral infections. That discovery was published in January in Science, one of the world's top research journals.
Since the article was published, a previously unknown virus has been discovered, said Miller.
The virus was discovered in late February 2011 and strengthens conclusions she and her colleagues reached in the article, Miller told the inquiry, speaking publicly for the first time since it was published.
The previously unknown virus is matched to a genetic signature that has been linked to the increased die-offs of sockeye returning to the Fraser River, said Miller.
However, research still needs to determine whether the newly discovered virus is infectious and whether it causes disease in sockeye and other salmon.
That research has just begun and will take at least two months to reach a finding, the inquiry was told.
"This is absolutely research in progress. And we are taking many different angles to this research as we make new discoveries," said Miller.
The inquiry was packed for Miller's much-anticipated testimony, as there was heightened public interest after it was believed she was muzzled by the federal government after the article was published.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the inquiry after sockeye returns to the Fraser River collapsed in 2009, falling to about 1.5 million from an anticipated 10 million.
Everything from climate change, disease, sea lice from salmon farms, toxic algae blooms and a lack of food in the ocean has been implicated.
However, scientists have not been able to pinpoint explicitly why the sockeye stocks have been declining in the past 20 years.
