A Fish Story

The problems facing our Sockeye and other fisheries are not secret.

Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River Courtesy: feww.files.wordpress.com

(GOLD RIVER, B.C.) - A Fish Story

Historically the Pacific Northwest of North America has been one of those spots in the world where food is usually always abundant. The sea along its coast has always been a good provider, and the most important gift that that sea has offered up is the Pacific salmon that once filled its rivers and streams from far west of Alaska to Central California. That is changing.

This year the return of Sockeye to the Fraser River collapsed and finally the Canadian government is ordering judicial inquiry into why this happened.

Why, actually is pretty straight forward, the question is will the inquiry bother to see it, or will it go through motions inventing reasons that can be addressed without upsetting the many stake holders with claims on the fishery.

And, if it does come up with the real answer, will the government have the will power to actually fix the problem, or will it buckle under to those powerful interests who have too much to lose from any effective program to restore fisheries to historic levels.

The problem of fishery depletion is not unique to the Pacific Northwest. Everyone with any amount of knowledge about Canada knows the problems in the Atlantic cod fishery and how it collapsed. And world wide fish stocks are being depleted as the sea is giving up its fish faster than they can be reproduced.

Over fishing is a big factor in the disappearance of the world's fish stocks, as the global human population increases so does the demand for seafood. And to make matters worse, fish are also harvested for pet food, fertilizer and feed for farm fish and other animals.

In fact it is estimated that about one third of fish caught are turned into feed for poultry, swine and other animals. Worse, much of the fish being used for this are the small forage fish which larger fish species depend upon. Another factor in fishery depletion is habitat destruction.

In the case of salmon this includes the obvious damming of rivers and diversion of run off, as well as destruction of riparian habitat by logging practices, agriculture and urban sprawl.

I can remember over fifty years ago when the world has only the third of the number of humans that it has now, and many forests were still untouched, and commercial fishing methods were not as refined. In those days we had plenty of fish everywhere up and down the coast. In my inland community many farmers took a break for a week or two in the summer to go to the coast and catch salmon and can a winter's supply.

In California this has not been possible for many years now, and the shortage of fish has been creeping northward to Oregon, Washington, and now BC. In California recently they finally imposed no- fishing zones off of the coast to help rebuild fish stocks.

Also, in a landmark case in defence of salmon environmentalists have won a fight in California mandating the rehabilitation of the San Joaquin River to the salmon producing stream that it once was over sixty years ago before they dammed it for irrigation water.

And, in Oregon and Washington they are discussing removing dams from the Columbia and Snake rivers to rebuild their salmon stocks. These actions are a beginning.

The problems facing our Sockeye and other fisheries are not secret.

Over fishing and habitat destruction are the key culprits. Fixing this will not be painless as it will aversely impact commercial fishers, sports fishers, logging operations, developers and others exploiting the riparian and maritime environments. It should include huge areas of no fishing zones up and down the coast, a ban on fishing herring and other forage fish, and a considerable investment in watershed protection and restoration.

What remains to be seen is if the government has the ability to follow science and do the right thing, or if it will play politics with our fishery to protect the interests of those who profit from over exploiting it.

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Jerry West grew up on a farm in Fresno County, California, and served with the US Marine Corps from 1965 to 1970 including 19 months in Vietnam with the Third Marine Division, and three years at MCAS Iwakuni where he became an anti-war organizer in 1970. He earned an Honors Degree in History at the University of California, Berkeley, and did two years of graduate study there. While in university he worked seasonally in fire and law enforcement with the US Forest Service.

After university he worked for a number of years in the international tour industry in operations and management before moving to a remote village on the west coast of Vancouver Island where he is currently the editor and publisher of The Record newspaper serving the Nootka Sound region. He is a Past President of the Northern California Land Trust, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

You can email Jerry West, Salem-News.com Writer, at: newsroom@salem-news.com