Concerns raised over alleged cuts to North Coast salmon monitoring

British Columbia conservation groups are sounding the alarm about a cut to a government program they say poses a serious threat to fish stocks.

The program involves crucial salmon monitoring at the peak of spawning season.

Aaron Hill with Watershed Watch Salmon Society said the deployment of a small group of professionals to see first hand how fish are doing in remote areas is critical to allow for fisheries to safely open.

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“(To) know that we have enough abundance, to do that we have to know how many fish are in our rivers and streams,” he told Global News.

Hill said in most years that information has been gathered by contractors hired by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

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This summer, he said, there appeared to be a disruption on two of B.C.’s most important salmon rivers.

” What happened is this year DFO for some reason didn’t get it together to get proper contracts for these folks at the beginning of the season,” Hill said.

The Rivers in question are the Nass and Skeena rivers on the North Coast.

After the Fraser River, more salmon spawn in these river systems than anywhere else in the province, and they support valuable commercial fishing operations so the monitoring is particularly important right now.

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“So they’ve been dead in the water, and our streams have been unmonitored for salmon spawners at the height of the spawning season,” he said.

Global News reached out to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.

Earlier this summer, another component of the salmon monitoring system was underway, a test fishery on the Fraser River that helped confirm a surprise surge in sockeye returns.

If officials are flying comparatively blind up north, as Hill believes, it shouldn’t be for lack of money. The DFO’s highly touted Pacific Salmon Strategy committed more than $600 million for enhancement work through next year.

“It’s crazy that they’ve spent all that money, at the end, the most basic function, the one job that they really need to do the most — they’re not getting done,” Hill said.