B.C.: Steelhead numbers at yet another all-time low

Photograph By OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

There are now fewer steelhead trout in the Thompson River system than there are letters in this sentence.

An Oct. 24 update from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations states that the current spawning population of the Thompson watershed is 86 fish. In the neighbouring Chilcotin watershed, 39 fish are expected to spawn.

For the Thompson, that figure is the lowest in 43 years of records. For the Chilcotin, in 49 years of records.

Each fish population remains in a state of extreme conservation concern.

This graph shows the expected abundance of spawning steelhead in the Thompson River system. The latest figure of 86 fish is the lowest across 43 years of record keeping. – Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations

The previous low point was established in March 2018, prompting the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (an advisory body to the government) to assess the populations as endangered. The body recommended an emergency order to place the fish on the endangered list under the federally controlled Species at Risk Act (SARA), which would stop fishing from recreational, commercial and First Nations sectors.

But the government’s plan released in July stopped short of any such listing, pledging instead to increase fish survival through improving freshwater habitats and conducting more science and monitoring activities.

On Thursday, five interest groups penned a letter to Premier John Horgan, pleading for action to save Interior Fraser River steelhead.

“Ocean survival, climate change and interception fisheries that use gill net are the three major factors attributed to the steep downward trend for Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead,” the letter reads, conceding that climate change and ocean survival are two factors that are beyond immediate control.

“The non-selective gill net fishery on the lower Fraser River is something that can be regulated and must be done forthwith before IFS [Interior Fraser steelhead] become extinct,” the letter continues.

The letter is signed by the BC Wildlife Federation, the British Columbia Federation of Drift Fishers, the British Columbia Federation of Fly Fishers, the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association and the Steelhead Society of British Columbia. SOURCE

 

Canada considers ’emergency’ warning from scientists that could complicate Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

Coldwater Indian Band Chief Lee Spahan speaks at a news conference with other First Nations leaders in Ottawa on Dec. 5, 2018. File photo by Alex Tétreault

The Trudeau government has been weighing scientists’ “emergency” warning about an endangered species for more than a year in a case that could have serious implications for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The species in question, steelhead trout, is of great importance to Coldwater Indian Band, a First Nation in southern interior British Columbia that is directly affected by the proposed pipeline expansion.

Local salmon and steelhead populations are “integral to Coldwater’s way of life and have been for generations,” the First Nation has said in a formal submission to the federal pipeline regulator, the National Energy Board.

The Thompson River population of steelhead trout spawn in the Coldwater River, which runs through Coldwater’s reserve and traditional territory along the proposed path of the pipeline expansion. MORE