Fishermen on the Fraser River remember 2009 for all the wrong reasons.
“The bottom fell out of the fishery for everyone,” said Ernie Crey, a fisherman and former head of the Sto:lo fisheries program.
Only 1.3 million sockeye returned to the Fraser that year, a disastrous run that followed years of low salmon returns. There was no commercial fishery and Crey said many aboriginal communities who depend on the fish as a food source experienced hardship.
In response, the federal government appointed a judicial inquiry, the Cohen Commission, to investigate the causes of the declining fish stocks. The inquiry took two years and cost $26 million.
But nine months after Justice Bruce Cohen tabled his final report, including 75 recommendations, fishermen such as Crey are still waiting for action. The report is especially on their minds this year, as the adult sockeye that are returning this year were hatched in 2009.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is predicting a modest year on the river, with a mid-range of 4.7 million salmon forecasted to return. Just a couple of weeks before the main sockeye season is expected to begin, it’s still too early to say whether there will be a commercial fishery this year, according to DFO.
“As soon as the commission made its recommendations, I was right onto the local MPs, and they said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to look into it, we’re going to do something,’” said fisherman Paul Kandt, who was a participant at the inquiry. “But they haven’t done anything.
“I warned them this could be another northern cod episode if they don’t get on the bit.”
In an email response, DFO said that it was “continuing its examination of the findings and recommendations” of the Cohen Commission.
“This is an extensive report. As such, the government is working with its partners as part of the careful review it is undertaking,” a DFO spokesperson wrote.
Business in Vancouver also contacted fisheries minister Gail Shea and Randy Kamp, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, but was referred to DFO for comment.
A spokesperson for West Vancouver MP John Weston, who has been active on fisheries issues, said Weston has been trying to get more information from Shea about the timeline for implementing the report. Weston has yet to receive a response.
Crey placed the blame for the delay squarely on the shoulders of the federal government.
“This [response] tells me, not so much for the DFO scientists, but this tells me it’s not a priority for the government,” he said.
Krandt and Crey said they didn’t necessarily expect immediate action on all of the recommendations. But so far, said Crey, there has been “no public response” about what the next steps will be and when action might be taken.
Which Cohen deadlines have come and gone?
Watershed Watch Salmon Society, a conservation group based in Coquitlam, has been tracking progress on the recommendations. Several came with deadlines that have already passed, said Stan Proboszcz, a fish biologist with Watershed Watch.
Those missed deadlines include:
- the creation of a new DFO position to implement a wild salmon policy, to be done immediately following publication of the Cohen Commission report;
- publish a detailed plan for implementation of the wild salmon policy, to be done by March 31, 2013;
- revise salmon farm siting criteria to reflect new scientific information about salmon farms, by March 31, 2013; and
- ensure that the maximum duration of any licence for a net-pen salmon farm in the Discovery Islands does not exceed one year, and issue no new licences for net-pen salmon farms in the Discovery Islands, to be done immediately following publication of the report.
