Canada Shuts Down 60% Of BC Commercial Salmon Fishing; Multiple Runs Nearing Collapse
Commercial salmon fishing will be closed in most of coastal B.C. this year and into the foreseeable future to save the West Coast's critically low fish stocks, the federal government announced Tuesday. Nearly 60 per cent of the province's commercial salmon fisheries, once the economic and cultural backbone of the B.C. coast, will be forced to shutter in 2021, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) said. Yukon salmon rivers will also be closed to all commercial fishing in 2021, while recreational fisheries in both Yukon and B.C. will be restricted. Many of B.C.'s coastal fisheries will likely not reopen to commercial harvesting for years in an attempt to revive the province's dwindling salmon populations.
“No fisheries minister wants to make these kinds of decisions, because they're very difficult and impact people's livelihoods,” said federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan. “(But) no fisheries minister wants to be the minister when the stock collapses, and that's where we are right now with Pacific salmon — it's a stock on the verge of collapse. If we don't do everything we can, we won't have salmon.”
Pacific salmon are in a long-term decline, with many runs verging on collapse as they struggle to survive climate change, habitat destruction and overfishing. Last year saw the lowest global salmon catch since 1982, according to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission, an international organization protecting wild salmon and other fish.
The province's salmon harvesters — many of them independent and nearing retirement — are also struggling after years of dangerously low catches, according to a report published by the United Fish and Allied Workers Union this spring. To compensate harvesters for the loss, DFO is creating a program to buy back commercial fishing licences from fish harvesters in an effort to permanently decrease the size of the West Coast salmon fleet. In 2019, DFO issued 1,582 commercial fishing licences for West Coast salmon, according to Statistics Canada.
EDIT
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/06/29/news/dfo-shuts-most-bc-fisheries-desperate-effort-save-wild-salmon-fish
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