In 2009, there was a poor return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. Anti-salmon farming groups saw an opportunity to piggy-back on this “disastrous” event and pestered politicians enough to initiate the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River. These well-funded activists had already made up their minds: salmon farming was to blame.
By October 2012, the Inquiry had wrapped up. After Judge Cohen heard from hundreds of witnesses (some of them actually experts in their field) he concluded that “…marine conditions in both the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound in 2007 were likely to be the primary factors responsible for the poor returns in 2009. Abnormally high freshwater discharge, warmer-than-usual sea surface temperatures, strong winds, and lower-than-normal salinity may have resulted in abnormally low phytoplankton and nitrate concentrations that could have led to poor zooplankton (food for sockeye) production.” (Volume 3, page 59)
Furthermore, that “…data presented during this Inquiry did not show that salmon farms were having a significant negative impact on Fraser River sockeye…” (Volume 3, page 24)
And with that, there was really no one to blame. Unless you want to blame that bitch named Mother Nature. But she won’t listen.
Understandably, activists were pissed off and embarrassed: they were absolutely proven wrong. And with this, their funding began to dry up. Philanthropists don’t fund losers. But seriously, trying to persuade the public with emotion rather than fact can only work for a limited time.
In the six years since the Inquiry there have been several phenomenal returns of sockeye and pink salmon to the Fraser River. In fact, the return in 2010 was a 100 year record high, and 2014 was pretty darn good too. Salmon farms in the area have continued to operate consistently through this time, and decades prior.
Now we are approaching the fall of 2015. The period where wild sockeye salmon are set to swim up the Fraser River to spawn the next generation in the numerous tributaries and lakes that funnel into the mighty river. While this year is not known historically to be a high return year (sockeye generally have a four year life cycle, with highs happening 2010, 2014, 2018 etc), it is now predicated to be below the guesstimate (2.4 million of the 6.8 million mid-range projection).
But activists and their philanthropic puppeteers w on’t dare be embarrassed twice, so they’re switching up their guess on who’s to blame. This year it is salmon ranching in Alaska.
One newspaper writes: “Pink salmon that are ocean “ranched” – raised by hatcheries and let loose to forage at sea – by Alaska, Russia and Asian countries are also thought to be a problem for sockeye in the North Pacific, where the pinks compete for food. Alaskan fisheries in Prince William Sound are expected to net a record 100 million pinks this year, a reflection of the massive number of pink fry the U.S. state sends out to sea.”
“You just can’t keep on pumping out artificially propagated fish into the North Pacific at a time when habitats may be becoming constrained because of warm water, climate change and other issues,” Taylor said.
You know we hate beat our own drum or toot our own horn, but did we ever call this one – see our blog post of August 2010 about “picking cherries”.
Boy oh boy, Mother Nature must have a great publicist: she always manages to deflect blame.
