Pacific Northwest Wild Salmon News Watch – August 9 to August 15, 2014

A recap of Pacific Northwest Wild Salmon News Items we found of interest from August 9 to August 15, 2014

Canada: A trip to an area of the British Columbia coast that was said to be devastated by the effects of salmon farming reveals its extraordinary biodiversity.

Odd Grydeland, FishfarmingXpert, August 12, 2014

Today I returned from a boat cruise of the Broughton Archipelago on the north-east side of Vancouver Island, where the well known, self- proclaimed “biologist” Alexandra Morton first raised the alarm bells about the “utter devastation” that the region’s salmon farms had wrought on much of the local sea life - from clams to porpoises and dolphins and whales - not to mention the local salmon stocks that were all but certainly heading for extinction due to pestilence and sea lice shed by those sick penned-up salmon…I would encourage anybody that might have a concern about the well-being of the ecosystem in the Broughton Archipelago to just go up there and take a look for themselves. There are salmon jumping everywhere - including in Echo Bay, where Ms Morton once lived, and where she started her tirade against one of the main sources of year-round employment in the region…

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Global BC, August 10, 2014

VANCOUVER — Nets are being loaded and equipment is being tuned up in preparation of what could be a promising day on the Fraser River. On Monday at 3:00 p.m. the Area E Gill Net Fishery for Sockeye Salmon opens – something that hasn’t happened in four years. “This week is the most important week for everybody,” Wayne Guerin, a Musqueam fisherman told Global News.

 

 Let the good times roll: summer sockeye run expected to be best in years

CTV Vancouver, Published Sunday, August 10, 2014

Starting Monday, the Fraser River salmon run opens for three hours. In that short time, Sean Dukic is hoping to catch as much as 1,000 fish. "It's going to be crazy.  Everybody's most likely going to catch a lot of fish. They'll come in here and park their boats just like this and it'll be a frenzy," he said.

Signs point to a bumper year for sockeye at fishers at the opening of the commercial fishery

By Matthew Robinson, Vancouver Sun August 11, 2014

 

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun August 13, 2014

...Jake Carey, a third-year biology and economics student at the University of Victoria, is a commission observer on board the Miss Delta. He records water temperature, wind speed and direction, the sex, weight and length of the sockeye, those with a “blush” colour (suggesting they’re becoming ready for spawning) and takes scale samples to determine age and fin samples for DNA analysis to determine where the sockeye are headed.

 

by Angela Cowan - Goldstream News Gazette, Aug 14, 2014

A surge in sockeye numbers and fishing runs in the Fraser river has prices dropping for the fresh catches, but retailers and wholesalers alike say good deals on the fish are unpredictable.

By Amy Judd,  Global News, August 8, 2014

VANCOUVER – In Campbell River the pink salmon have decided to return to the Quinsam River three weeks early this year and they are showing up in record numbers...“It’s been fantastic,” said David Ewart, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans watershed enhancement manager.

 

75% of these fish returning are from the river's natural production in 2012

Low water levels in the Quinsam River and a huge run of pink salmon that is migrating three weeks earlier than normal is causing concerns for fisheries managers. David Ewart, Watershed Enhancement Manager, … Quinsam River Hatchery, said all indications are that there will be some mortality caused by the weather. "I fully expect that with the current water conditions and numbers of fish, there will be pre-spawn mortality occurring in the rivers in the weeks to come," he said. "It's nature's way of balancing things out."

 

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