Unprecedented: Sockeye salmon at dire historic low on Canada’s Pacific coast — “We think something happened in the ocean” — “The elders have never seen anything like this at all” — Alaska and Russia also affected (MAP)
ENENews
Title: Lake Babine sockeye fishery at risk of unprecedented closure
Source: Associated Press
Date: Aug 12, 2013
Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing some extremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows.
Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussion about whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would be drastic and unprecedented [...]
Last month, the department noted returns for the Skeena River sockeye run were dire. [...]
[Mel Kotyk, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] said department scientists don’t know why the return numbers are so low. “[...] we think something happened in the ocean.”
“[...] We’ve never seen anything like this in all these years I’ve done this. I’ve asked the elders and they have never seen anything like this at all.” [said Chief Wilf Adam]
Gundersen: We are going to see top of the food chain animals like tuna and salmon and things like that that bioaccumulate [...] I am concerned that the FDA is not monitoring fish entering the United States [...] I am thinking by 2013 we might see contamination of the water and of the top of the food chain fishes on the West Coast.
Gundersen: Federal and state agencies are not measuring this… I’ve been working on the West Coast and I’ve been trying to get the people of Oregon to demand of their state, the people of Alaska to demand of their state: Check the salmon, it is not difficult.