Wild Salmon Report focuses on three goals for Made in BC strategy

The Final Recommendations of the committee created to explore issues of the provinces Wild Salmon stocks have been delivered to the Provincial Government.

On Friday afternoon the Wild Salmon Advisory Council presented its final report, providing 13 recommendations towards the three goals that are listed to find progress when it comes to the protection and stewardship of the marine resource.

As part of their study the Advisory Council collected feedback from a number of community meetings and public engagements across the province, including a session hosted in Prince Rupert at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre in mid December of last year.

Among the members of the Advisory Council were Joy Thorkelson from Prince Rupert, President of Unifor-UFFAWU and Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk First Nation, who served as a co chair with MLA Doug Routley as part of the report process.

As the Advisory Council took to their duties last June, they were tasked with hearing from community stakeholders and residents as to how the government could craft a Made In BC Wild Salmon Strategy.

Over the past seven months, the WSAC has gathered information through a series of commissioned reports, conducted engagement throughout the province, and held significant internal deliberations. We offer the following recommendations in the belief that they fundamentally support the provincial government’s intention on this issue. These recommendations will also be helpful in formulating appropriate and timely actions for both wild salmon and the communities dependent on them for good lives and livelihoods.

The Three goals include:

Increase the abundance of wild salmon

Included in the recommendations, a call for better enforcement of provincial laws and regulations, support to provincial organizations supporting habitat protection and work with all levels of government to ensure monitoring of fisheries is improved.

Protect and enhance the economic, social and cultural benefits that come to B.C. communities from wild salmon and other fisheries, placing emphasis on adjacent communities

Themes explored as part of the recommendations included Consider extending the reach of Indigenous guardianship programs, invest in innovation  to support initiatives related to wild salmon recovery and establish as comprehensive provincial vision and strategy for BC Fisheries that acknowledge adjacency principles that reflect the values of British Columbians.

Develop mechanisms, processes, practices and structures to engage citizens and governments in the effective stewardship and management of B.C.’s wild salmon

Some of the recommendations associated with the third goal include: Establish an internal mechanism – an inaugural team or ombudsman to co-ordinate the immediate actions for the Wild Salmon Strategy, and to support the development of a lead agency for B.C. fisheries that clearly delineates and supports wild salmon and B.C. fisheries. Formally recognize the importance of Indigenous organizations and First Nations in the task of rebuilding wild salmon in B.C., along with their constitutionally-protected Right to participate in and benefit from the management of this resource

As part of the overview of the state of the Wild Salmon stocks, the Council called on the government to address the needs and habitat of the wild stocks, with the Council seeking:

“tangible, achievable, near-term actions that can address the immediate needs of wild salmon and their habitat”, as well as establishing “long-term provincial engagement on this issue, recognizing that impact will require ongoing and significant effort.”

The thirteen recommendations for the three goals of the finished document will provide the provincial government with guidance as to how they wish to follow up on the state of the province's salmon stocks with the Federal Government which through the Department of Fisheries makes many of the decisions that impact on coastal communities.

When it comes to the concluding themes on their nine month journey, the Council calls for more engagement by the province in the process of protection of the province's resource.

Creating a made-in-B.C. Wild Salmon Strategy at this juncture, when the threats to our wild salmon populations are so complex, requires an urgent and strategic intervention. The Wild Salmon Advisory Council confirmed through its work, including the engagement process, that there ARE solutions and there IS public interest/endorsement for this initiative. 

We heard at multiple times, and in many ways, that increasing wild salmon abundance is and should be a provincial government goal. We also heard repeatedly that the citizens of B.C., and particularly adjacent communities, must benefit directly from the public investment that will be required. 

The WSAC’s recommendations recognize this duality, encourage the Province to take a leadership role on this issue, and offer guidance for both immediate and mid-term actions. 

A made-in-B.C. Wild Salmon Strategy is long overdue.

You can review the full report here.

The Provincial government will now take the study under review, as it decides how best to approach it's plans for a Made in BC strategy, as well as how they can ensure that the findings and the province's desires for the future can be heard by the Federal Minister of Fisheries.

For more notes of interest on the fishing industry on the North Coast see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.

Wild Salmon Council Report delivers recommendations and goals on the fate of British Columbia's Wild Salmon

After four months of work, the members of the NDP government appointed Wild Salmon Panel have delivered their preliminary report into the issues, challenges and future hopes for the salmon fishery, a fifty three page document that covers a lot of territory when it comes to the fate of Wild Salmon in BC waters.

Created by the BC government in June of this year the fourteen member council membership included UFAWU-Unifor leader and Prince Rupert City Councillor Joy Thorkelson

 The Wild Salmon Advisory Council was co-chaired by Nanaimo area MLADoug Routley and Chief Marilyn Slett from the Heiltsuk First Nation.

The biographies of the study participants provide a look at some of the experience that the panel members brought towards the range of themes that were to be addressed as part of their work through the summer.

The terms of reference for the Advisory Council tasked the group with three guiding questions to seek solutions for:

UFAWU-Unifor's Joy Thorkelson
is one of fourteen members of
the Wild Salmon Advisory Council

Restoration and enhancement of wild salmon populations; 

Sustainable fisheries management and stewardship opportunities for communities; and 

New economic development opportunities to assist viable/sustainable community based fisheries.

Among the many themes explored during the course of their work was the state of the Wild Salmon
economy in British Columbia, with a look at both the Commercial sector and that of the recreational sector.

The report also examined the importance of wild salmon for Indigenous peoples and their communities.

The review of the Commercial Industry raised  a number of flags of concern for the Council participants, with the study making note that the benchmark year for some of the current troubles came in 1995 when the following issues arose:

Lower salmon abundance, attributed in some combination to ocean conditions, habitat failures, predation and fishing activities;  

Increasingly risk-averse fisheries management. Precautionary management measures meant lower harvest rates and less mixed-stock fishing in the ocean; 

DFO management decisions to reallocate salmon from the commercial sector to recreational and Indigenous Peoples’ fisheries, reducing the amount of fish available to the commercial sector; and 

The growth of the aquaculture industry internationally which initially served to depress prices.

The study also observes how from those issues, changes put in place from 1996 into the 2000's only served to make things worse.

Creation of different licences for each fishing area on the coast, which altered the practice of ‘following the fish’ along the coast in favour of restricting each vessel’s activity to a single area;  

Single gear licencing, which required harvesters to choose one gear type; • Introduction of quota into other fisheries, which required salmon harvesters to purchase quota for other species that had traditionally supplemented salmon incomes in years of lower abundance; 

Permitting the stacking of licenses and quota onto one vessel; 

Permitting the ownership of fisheries quota by non fish harvesters, and the leasing of this quota to active harvesters, thereby increasing the cost of accessing fish to harvest; and; 

Salmon licence buybacks to encourage harvesters to exit the industry.

The result of those measures having resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the number of commercial salmon licences and an 80 per cent decrease in the number of active vessels.

For Indigenous communities the dominant objectives when it comes to access to fisheries follow three key elements:

Increased salmon abundance

A reallocation of salmon   

A greater degree of integration into BC's Commercial and recreational fisheries.

Towards those issues of note the report observed that today, the BC First Nations Fisheries Council (FNFC) works to increase Indigenous Peoples’ access to fisheries and their involvement in fisheries management and decision-making, with the work of FNFC is organized into thirteen regions.

Most operate fisheries programs at both the individual community level and in some form of aggregate organization such as the  Skeena Fisheries Commission, Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance.

The activities of both individual and/or aggregate fisheries programs include: salmon assessment; catch monitoring; hatcheries and low-tech enhancement; habitat restoration; and fisheries management. Most of these activities take place with the support of federal and provincial management agencies.

The observations related to the Recreation Sector noted that the sector accounts for nearly half of the GDP of BC's fisheries sector, with the recreational fishery and its associated businesses forming part of the broader outdoor recreation and tourism sector offerings in BC.

From that the report notes how the recreation sector provides a significant contribution to local economies, benefiting both those who provide direct fishing services as well as ancillary services such as accommodations, food and beverage, and transportation.

The study also highlighted the work of the recreation sector when it comes to salmon enhancement and monitoring programs in the province.

When it comes to recommendations, there aren't many, with the main note of interest from the study related to how the recreational fishing licences have remained the same since 1996, and that there is an opportunity to increase revenues generated from licence sales even to meet inflation that could be explored. The study also observes that at this point the Federal licence sales do not flow automatically to the regions, but are instead delivered to General Revenues.


The Conclusion to the report provides a look at what the study participants suggest are the seven conditions for success in addressing the issues facing Wild Salmon:

It is imperative that we learn from past efforts. There have been billions of dollars spent on hundreds of experiments – large and small. The wisdom, experience and best practices from this time spent and these investments made must inform our future course of action. 

Peer-reviewed science, traditional and local knowledge, and ecosystem-based management must inform our approach. We must commit to learning as we progress and recognize the uniqueness of each place and every circumstance. 

We must acknowledge the uncertainties inherent in working with nature. Work to return wild salmon abundance is happening amidst an unpredictable future due to climate change. 

Communities that depend on aquatic resources, and the people who make their living from fishing or from its ancillary services, are at the heart of this initiative. They are committed to the cause, knowledgeable about the issues and dependent upon a good outcome. There are no better allies for this work. 

New forms of collaborative governance that recognize the unique and important role of Indigenous Peoples and that value the advice of stakeholders are a critical component of building long term success.

Careful and strategic planning, long term investments and effective systems of federal-provincial-Indigenous Peoples management across the life cycle of salmon should form the backbone of the Wild Salmon Strategy. 

Finally, immediate and strategic actions, guided by experience and science, that will shore up the weakest links, garner the fastest results, and situate BC’s wild salmon for the greatest possible future, must begin.

The report comes to and end with the recommendation of three goals for action towards a Made in British Columbia Wild Salmon Strategy

You can review how they plan to achieve those goals, as well as the scope of the entire study from the full document available here.

The report will now be submitted to the Legislature's Select Standing Committee of Agriculture, Fish and Food in the weeks to come, allowing for members of the Committee to review its findings and chart the path ahead for addressing the issues for Wild Salmon in British Columbia.

For more items of interest related to the North Coast fishery see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review