By Amanda Jackson
CNN

With hibernation fast approaching, a grizzly bear family is spotted searching for fish near the shores of Canada's Knight Inlet. They're emaciated.

The heartbreaking images, captured by a Canadian photographer, have sparked concern from wildlife observers. They worry whether the bear and two cubs will even make it through hibernation.

It also shines light on another victim of the climate crisis and the depletion of wild salmon population.

Knight Inlet is a prime tourist spot in British Columbia, Canada for grizzly bear viewing. Visitors from all over the world come to take in the wilderness and admire the wildlife.
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The Mamalilikulla First Nation has been monitoring the bears, specifically those in Hoeya Sound and Lull Bay, for several years.

"They have drastically changed within a couple months," Jake Smith, guardian watchman manager for the Mamalilikulla First Nation, told CNN. "The bears are in trouble."

Smith said when he saw the images on Friday, he knew he had to try to help. The bears' main food source, salmon, is at an all time low in the area. Commercial fishermen in British Columbia are calling this the worst salmon season in nearly 50 years.

In August, a report released by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada noted that Canada's climate is warming twice as fast as the global average, drastically impacting the salmon's ecosystems. The report also cited marine heatwaves, increased floods and droughts as causing greater stress on the fish.

Smith arranged for 500 salmon, donated by A-Tlegay Fisheries Society on Vancouver Island, to be distributed along the shorelines that the grizzlies frequent. Volunteers on Sunday piled the fish in ice chests and delivered them by boat to the area. Smith said bears were present and started eating the fish right away.

"We were about 30 feet away from them," Smith said. "A little grizzly looked up at us and the mother bear came out to get the fish."
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While this is only a small step to help the bears, the First Nation will now continue to monitor the bears for any updates.

Causes of decline in wild salmon population

The wild salmon population has been steadily declining in the British Columbia area over the past few years. Just last month, advocates for commercial fishing asked the government for disaster relief to help the industry.

"The impacts of this climate change disaster has been coast wide," said Joy Thorkelson, president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union, at a press conference in September.

The warmer weather has impacted the temperature of the water and drastically impacted the salmon run this year, according to CNN news partner CTV.

Another factor for the wild salmon population loss is the open-net fish farming that critics say are spreading disease and pollution in the water.

"Everywhere in the world where there is salmon farming you have a decline in the wild salmon population," said biologist Alexandra Morton, who has been researching the effects of farming for the past 30 years. This type of farming allows for waste to be added back into the water and exposes the wild salmon population to viruses, according to Morton.

In December, the British Columbia government along with First Nations created a plan to transition out of open-net farming by 2023 so that the wild salmon population can recover. The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has defended open-net farming as environmentally sustainable, calling plans to phase out open-net farming "a reckless policy, not grounded in science."

Bears forced to travel far for food

​Rolf Hicker, a wildlife photographer, took the images of the thin bears while giving a boat tour. He posted them on Facebook on September 23.

"We saw this sow with her two little ones a couple of weeks ago and then we saw her again only a few days ago," he posted. "I have no idea how she would make it through the winter without salmon."

More than half of Canada's grizzly population lives in British Columbia, and their average weight is 220 to 880 pounds, according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. They forage for berries and plants, but salmon is their main food source.

Hicker told CNN that not all of the bears that he's seen are this thin, but the majority are not healthy.

Smith and Hicker said the grizzlies are starting to relocate and island hop to other areas, including Vancouver Island, looking for food.

"Provincial biologists cannot confirm why the bears appear to be in poor shape," said a statement from the province's Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.

"If salmon runs in the area are lower than expected, this will have an added effect and bears may have to travel further to find food."

Grizzly bears hibernate for five to seven months each year and live off the fat built up during the summer and fall months, according to the National Park Service. If female bears go into hibernation leaner than normal, this might impact how many cubs she has, according to Parks Canada.

"Grizzlies are not native to Vancouver Island," said Hicker. " They are spending all their energy swimming to go to another location. They are being forced to do that for food."

Swanson Island, about an hour boat ride from Knight Inlet, is another location where grizzlies are showing up, Smith said.

"They were approaching our camps, and we are seeing them in areas we rarely ever see bears," Rick Snowdon, owner of Spirit of The West, told CNN. He takes tourists to Swanson Island for camping trips and kayaking.

Snowdon said while they haven't had a negative interaction with the bears, they have had to emphasize to guests to use caution.

"I've seen several grizzles with cubs," he said. "They definitely looked lightweight."
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The natural resources ministry told CNN they will be meeting with First Nations on Thursday to discuss the situation.

Canada isn't the only area facing issues with wild salmon populations. This summer, the heat wave in Alaska resulted in scientist finding hundreds of dead salmon due to heat stress. The water temperatures broke records as it rose to 81 degrees in July in Cook Inlet.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/03/americas/emaciated-grizzly-bears-knights-inlet-canada-trnd-scn/index.html

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region

​VANCOUVER, Sept. 5, 2019 /CNW/ - Healthy wild fish stocks are vital to the economic prosperity and social fabric of British Columbia's coastal communities, and are fundamental to the culture of many Indigenous communities.

The focus on habitat restoration projects and research science is part of a broader approach to addressing declines in salmon stocks that include restoring lost protections for fish and fish habitat in the modernized Fisheries Act, science-based fisheries management measures, reviewing concerns regarding predation and implementing a plan to fight climate change.

Today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, and the British Columbia Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Lana Popham, announced 14 projects under the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF), amounting to almost $6.2 million in year one funding and almost $30 million in funding over the five years of the program.

Projects funded under BCSRIF will advance work to enhance salmon habitats to help support British Columbia's fish and seafood sector, and help secure the sustainability of wild Pacific salmon, as well as other wild fish stocks. Over the next five years, investments through the BCSRIF will help ensure British Columbia's wild fisheries are environmentally and economically sustainable for the long-term, and that employment in the fishery is resilient to the challenges of climate change, as well as evolving economic conditions.

BCSRIF funding is open to Indigenous communities, industry associations, environmental non-governmental organizations and academic institutions. Each application is reviewed and approved by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Province of British Columbia. Investments through this program will benefit commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture, as well as science and research initiatives.

​Quotes

"Our government understands the need to protect and restore salmon habitats as a key part of our plan to sustain and restore wild salmon populations. Through the investments being made under the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, we are taking decisive action in improving conditions and habitat in waterways across the province. Working in partnership with the Province of British Columbia, I am confident that we can and are making substantive progress in protecting and enhancing our wild fish stocks and in strengthening our fishing industry for today, and for generations to come."

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

"These projects highlight how many British Columbians are working together to help wild salmon, and how our collective knowledge, respect and appreciation of the species will help them recover. Multiple First Nations, governments, conservation organizations, industry, and academic institutions are working to restore habitat in key streams and rivers in different parts of the province, research ways to optimize performance in community hatcheries, and help understand and prepare for the threats salmon face through climate change. It is a lot of hard work, and it will be ongoing, but the impressive cooperation and commitment of so many British Columbians is helping the outlook for wild salmon recovery."

The Honourable Lana Popham, BC Minister of Agriculture

Quick Facts

• Additional information on the 23 initial projects selected for BCSRIF funding can be found online here.
• The British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund is a 70 per cent federal, 30 per cent provincial cost-shared program.
• The Government of Canada is investing $100 million over five years through the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, and is providing a one-time investment of $5 million for the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund.
• The Government of British Columbia is investing $42.85 million over five years through the fund and has provided a one-time grant of $5 million for the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
• Indigenous communities, commercial organizations in the wild fisheries and aquaculture sectors, recreational fisheries, as well as non-commercial organizations such as universities and research institutions, industry associations and conservation groups, can apply.
• Salmon are a part of intricate food webs, from tiny zooplankton, to large mammals like whales and bears, in both their freshwater and marine environments.
• Wild salmon are culturally important for many First Nations in British Columbia. Wild salmon is also part of the province's long-running tradition of recreational and sport fishing, which is directly connected to its tourism industry.
• Further opportunities to apply for funding will be provided in the late fall of 2019. Details and exact dates will be made available at a later date.

Associated Links

• British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund
• Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund
• National Indigenous Fisheries Institute
• British Columbia Conservation Foundation
• Baker Creek Enhancement Society
• Nazko First Nation
• Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (UVic)
• Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia
• Scw'exmx Tribal Council
• Secwepemcul'ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society
• Tides Canada
• Watershed Watch Society
• Pacific Salmon Foundation
• Canadian Wildlife Federation
• British Columbia Cattlemen's Association
• 'Namgis First Nation
• Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation
• Mamalilikulla First Nation

Backgrounder
British Columbia projects that are receiving funding through the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund include:

• The National Indigenous Fisheries Institute will engage with Indigenous communities to identify potential large-scale, multi-Nation initiatives that could be supported by BCSRIF. This work will also encourage increased Indigenous involvement in science partnerships, innovation and infrastructure investments that would improve productivity, sustainability, and safety across the sector. The National Indigenous Fisheries Institute will receive up to $385K in funding.
• Led by the British Columbia Conservation Foundation, the "Innovative Habitat Restoration Demonstration" is a multi-year, watershed-scale demonstration project to showcase innovative habitat restoration methods that accommodate the effects of recent ecosystem shifts with benefits to Chinook, coho, sockeye and steelhead. The project will promote restoration, protection and maintenance of healthy and diverse salmon populations and their habitats. The 'Innovative Habitat Restoration Demonstration' will receive nearly $5M (approximately $792K in year 1) in funding.
• The Baker Creek Enhancement Society will collaborate with the Nazko First Nation to undertake restoration of critical habitat affected by the Plateau Fire. This work will also prevent further habitat degradation from normal precipitation and predictable storm events. The Baker Creek Enhancement Society in collaboration with the Nazko First Nation will receive up to $750K (approximately $150K in year 1) in funding.
• The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (UVic) will conduct research to improve our understanding of potential threats to Pacific salmonids and their habitats posed by climate change and develop risk assessment tools to support adaptive regional management approaches. The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (UVic) will receive close to $1M (approximately $113K in year 1) in funding.
• BCSRIF will support elements of the Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia (SFI) Vision 2021. This is an action plan to maximize the social and economic potential of the recreational fishery on Canada's Pacific coast. The project aims to improve representation of the fishing community and increase participation in the fishing sector by youth, new Canadians and others. SFI will receive up to $701K (approximately $149K in year 1) in funding.
• The Scw'exmx Tribal Council and partners will assess and rehabilitate degraded habitats in the Coldwater River and Guichon Creek watersheds to improve survival of Thompson steelhead and Chinook salmon. The Scw'exmx Tribal Council and partners will receive close to $1.3M (approximately $126K in year 1) in funding.
• The Secwepemcul'ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society, in partnership with Secwepemc communities and the 100 Mile Natural Resource District will undertake restoration of critical habitat affected by the 2017 Elephant Hill Wildfire in the Traditional territories of the 8 Secwepemcul'ecw Nations. The Secwepemcul'ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society, Secwepemc communities and the 100 Mile Natural Resource District will receive nearly $2.6M (approximately $430K in year 1) in funding.
• Tides Canada and the Watershed Watch Society along with other partners, will implement "Connected Waters", a project to identify priority sites requiring infrastructure upgrades and habitat restoration across the Lower Fraser River watershed, which will support the reintegration of vital wild salmon habitats. Tides Canada and the Watershed Watch Society will receive nearly $600k (approximately $232K in year 1) in funding.
• The Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) will conduct a science-based review of hatcheries in the Pacific Region (including community hatcheries and DFO major facilities) to evaluate performance and the effectiveness of current genetic and genomic tools, in order to optimize salmon production in BC. PSF will receive nearly $1.1M (approximately $305K in year 1) in funding.
• The Canadian Wildlife Federation will bring together partners, including federal and provincial governments, non-governmental organizations, First Nations and communities to prioritize fish passage remediation efforts across BC to maximize the benefits for steelhead trout and Pacific salmon. The Canadian Wildlife Federation will receive close to $4M (approximately $1.2M in year 1) in funding.
• The British Columbia Cattlemen's Association will deliver the Farmland Riparian Interface Stewardship Program, promoting habitat restoration and stewardship on agricultural lands in BC. The program will encourage environmental farm planning within the agricultural sector for more "fish friendly" land management practices around riparian corridors, as well as promoting water conservation for BC Interior salmon streams experiencing frequent critical low flows. The British Columbia Cattlemen's Association will receive up to $550K (approximately $110K in year 1) in funding.
• The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will partner on activities to assess, prioritize and restore critical salmon habitat in the Nimpkish and Kokish Rivers, Rivers flowing from Bond Sound, Thompson Sound, Wakemen Sound, Viner Sound and Rivers Near Hoyea Sound and Lull Creek. The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will receive more than $4.2M (approximately $479K in year 1) in funding.
• The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will work together on the first steps towards establishing a genomics lab to analyze samples collected by First Nations with an interest in conducting independent fish health sampling. The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will receive approximately $50K in funding.
• The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will implement the Broughton First Nations Indigenous Monitoring and Inspection Plan, using BCSRIF support to build monitoring and oversight capacity over finfish farms in the Broughton, capacity to monitor wild salmon, other marine species (and their ecosystems) and to conduct salmon habitat restoration activities. The 'Namgis, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations will receive close to $7.3M (approximately $1.7M in year 1) in funding.

Stay Connected

• Follow Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
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• Subscribe to receive our news releases and more via RSS feeds. For more information or to subscribe, visit http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/rss-eng.htm

SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region
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For further information: Jocelyn Lubczuk, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, 343-548-7863, Jocelyn.lubczuk@dfo-mpo.gc.ca; Media Relations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 613-990-7537, Media.xncr@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Related Linkswww.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

SOURCE: https://prn.to/2MZ4EiF​

By Ryan Prior
CNN

Alaska has been in the throes of an unprecedented heat wave this summer, and the heat stress is killing salmon in large numbers.

Scientists have observed die-offs of several varieties of Alaskan salmon, including sockeye, chum and pink salmon.

Stephanie Quinn-Davidson, director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, told CNN she took a group of scientists on an expedition along Alaska's Koyokuk River at the end of July, after locals alerted her to salmon die-offs on the stream.

She and the other scientists counted 850 dead unspawned salmon on that expedition, although they estimated the total was likely four to 10 times larger.They looked for signs of lesions, parasites and infections, but came up empty. Nearly all the salmon they found had "beautiful eggs still inside them," she said. Because the die-off coincided with the heat wave, they concluded that heat stress was the cause of the mass deaths.

Quinn-Davidson said she'd been working as a scientist for eight years and had "never heard of anything to this extent before."

"I'm not sure people expected how large a die-off we'd see on these rivers," she said.

The heat wave is higher than climate change models predicted

The water temperatures have breaking records at the same time as the air temperatures, according to Sue Mauger, the science director for the Cook Inletkeeper.

Scientists have been tracking stream temperatures around the Cook Inlet, located south of Anchorage, since 2002. They've never recorded a temperature above 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Until now.

On July 7, a major salmon stream on the west side of the Cook Inlet registered 81.7 degrees.
Mauger said she and her team published a study in 2016, creating models outlining moderate and pessimistic projections for how climate change would drive temperatures in Alaska's streams.

"2019 exceeded the value we expected for the worst-case scenario in 2069," she said.
Mauger said that the warm temperatures are affecting salmon in various ways, depending on the stream.

"Physiologically, the fish can't get oxygen moving through their bellies," Mauger said. In other places in the state, the salmon "didn't have the energy to spawn and died with healthy eggs in their bellies."

Salmon under threat

Salmon populations are under stress from other angles as well.

Overfishing is threatening salmon further south in southwestern Canada and northwestern Washington. Orca whales, which are themselves endangered, feed on salmon.

With fewer salmon to eat, populations of orca whales have steadily declined over the past decades.

And last week the Environmental Protection Agency told staff scientists it would no longer oppose a mining project in Alaska that had the potential to devastate one of the world's most valuable wild salmon fisheries, just after President Trump met with Alaska's Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

But in other areas, things are looking up. "Salmon are very resilient. They've overcome a lot," said Mary Catharine Martin, a spokeswoman for the non-profit Salmon State.

Alaska's Bristol Bay, the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, is annually seeing boom times for salmon returns, and in 2016 celebrated the 2 billionth salmon caught in its waters, after more than a century of commercial fishing.
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"That's very good," she said. "Salmon have sustained the way of life of the people of Alaska for thousands of years."​

By Gloria Dickie 
HAKAI MAGAZINE

​In 2013, a mass of unusually warm water appeared in the Gulf of Alaska. Over the next three years, the Blob, as it became known, spread more than 3,200 kilometers, reaching down to Mexico. This freak marine heatwave, combined with a strong El Niño, drastically affected the Pacific Ocean ecosystem killing thousands of animals and changing the distribution of species along the coast.

It’s been three years since the Blob dissipated, and researchers are taking stock of its long-term impacts on fish and other wildlife.

Last month, Laurie Weitkamp, a fisheries biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, and her colleagues released a report detailing how the Blob affected species found in the northern California Current ecosystem, which runs from the Canadian border to southern Oregon. The report shows that the mass of warm water helped some and hurt others. Between 2013 and 2017, for instance, the populations of animals accustomed to warm water, such as mackerel, squid, hake, and rockfish, ballooned. Many jellyfish species also had a strong showing.

One of the strongest effects of the Blob was the explosion of California market squid along the Oregon coast. In 2018, fishers in Oregon landed more than three million kilograms of market squid, shattering the previous record of a mere 1.2 million kilograms in 2016. Meanwhile, fewer squid swam in the waters off California, their usual stronghold.

Troy Buell, the fisheries management program leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, says the boom was likely the result of more squid being born in Oregon waters rather than animals moving up from the Golden State. Squid fishers, however, did migrate north to cash in.

But other species have struggled in the wake of the Blob. “When fish hatch out of their eggs, they absorb their yolk sac and have to start feeding,” says Weitkamp. But if their food isn’t there, “they’re screwed.” For many young fish, their favorite food was wiped out by the heat or shifted elsewhere.

As a result, there is now a void in the populations of some species that were in their larval stages when the Blob hit its crescendo. Species that should be along the Pacific coast or returning to inland waterways simply aren’t. And that’s taking a toll on the ecosystem and on commercial fisheries.

Chinook salmon, for example, are often harvested when they are around three or four years old, meaning that the salmon that went out to sea in 2015 should have returned home this year. As a result of the Blob, says Weitkamp, the Columbia River has “the lowest spring return ever of chinook this year.” In response, Washington State has suspended summer chinook fishing.

This July, British Columbia, also suffering low returns of sockeye salmon due to the Blob, closed the recreational sockeye fishery on the Skeena River. The return of sockeye and pink salmon to the Fraser River this year is also uncertain.

Alaska, meanwhile, is a story of contrasts. Pacific cod crashed around 2017, and the shrimping industry has struggled, too. But in 2018, Bristol Bay, in southwest Alaska, saw the highest return of sockeye salmon ever recorded. “It’s so strange,” says Weitkamp. “It’s so unpredictable.”

There have been less obvious consequences of the Blob, too. Scientists believe that the availability of prey for humpback whales has changed around California. “There’s now a lack of krill, so the whales are feeding on anchovies closer to shore, which is also where there is more overlap with crab gear,” says Buell. This change in feeding habits may be contributing to a recent spike in whale entanglements.
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It’s unclear how long the consequences of the Blob might last or when the next Blob might hit.

By Holly Lake 
HAKAI MAGAZINE

​Canada has the longest coastline in the world, yet it has long been a lax outlier in fisheries management. But with an overhaul of the federal Fisheries Act now complete, the sense among advocates and fisheries experts is that the tide is about to turn.

The passage of Bill C-68 on June 21 means that for the first time since the Fisheries Act was enacted in 1868, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is required to manage fish stocks sustainably and put rebuilding plans in place for those that are depleted.

Josh Laughren, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organization Oceana Canada, says that in 20 years we may look back and see the new criteria around sustainable management and rebuilding stocks as a transformational change.

“We’ve put our money where our mouth is,” says Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of fisheries, oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, noting that the federal government has already committed CAN $107-million to support the work. “It raises the bar in making sure that decision-making is based on science and evidence.”

Laughren says if this act had been in place in the 1980s and implemented as written, Canada could have avoided the collapse of the northern cod fishery in the early 1990s. “The history of Atlantic Canada would be different.”

Instead, cod stocks were depleted, triggering a moratorium on fishing in 1992. The federal government still has no recovery plan in place for the species.

Like Laughren, Wilkinson believes the changes are overdue.

“These kinds of things should have been done a long time ago,” Wilkinson says. “We should have been resourcing them more effectively.”

The new act also restores protections for fish habitats that were gutted in 2012 by the previous Conservative government, increases requirements for monitoring and reporting, requires Indigenous knowledge to be incorporated into decisions, and mandates a review of the act every five years.

Wilkinson says when it comes to addressing the challenges facing global fisheries, Canada is now “at the forefront.” Laughren, however, says it’s more that Canada is now in the conversation.

Until now, for example, Canada’s fisheries minister had full discretion to authorize fishing without limits. There were no provisions in the act to prevent overfishing or mandate actions on troubled stocks. It was a unique power in fisheries management and conservation.

In contrast, Chile, New Zealand, Japan, the European Union, and the United States have long had legal restrictions and requirements limiting fisheries managers’ discretion.

Most of these jurisdictions have also had requirements to prevent overfishing. New Zealand’s Fisheries Act and the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy go even further, imposing binding requirements to rebuild depleted stocks and base decisions on the best available science.

While Canada had policies on evidence-based decision-making and sustainable fisheries, until now, they were not enshrined in law.

“We now have [legislation] that says the purpose of fisheries management is to keep stocks healthy and return them there if they’re not healthy,” Laughren says.

However, the United States is still ahead in terms of the government’s legal obligations, he says. The Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates annual reports to Congress about which stocks are overfished, how to determine if stocks are close to being overfished, and how overfishing will affect stocks.

“Then they have to outline what they will do about it,” Laughren says, noting that management plans must include clear targets and timelines, and a failure to meet them often lands the government in court.

“[The Magnuson-Stevens Act] is far more prescriptive than [Canada’s] Fisheries Act. And there’s evidence it works,” says Laughren. “The US has 45 rebuilt stocks since that law was put in place in 1976.”

In Canada, of 26 critically depleted stocks, only five have rebuilding plans. Further, only 34 percent of fish populations in Canada are healthy, and more than 13 percent are critically depleted.

Like Laughren, Susanna Fuller, a marine biologist and senior project planner with Canadian nonprofit Oceans North, thinks the new act is something to celebrate. But they’re both looking to the act’s regulations, which are still to come, to provide prescriptive timelines, targets, and directions—details that are rolled into the law itself south of the border.

“In Canada, our regulations actually do mean a lot,” Fuller says. “I think that whether or not we’re in line with other countries is going to be very much in the implementation of the act. We’ll find that out over the next while as regulations roll out.”

While Canada now has legislation that is on par with other fishing nations, and is unique in that the act’s habitat protection provisions apply to all fish and habitats covering all aquatic ecosystems, Fuller says no country is really managing fisheries sustainably, none has met global targets on rebuilding stocks, and none is employing an ecosystem-based approach to management.

Fuller says that the law now enables Canada to possibly meet some of its international commitments around sustainable fisheries management, but adds that whether the planet gets real fisheries management and biodiversity protection in the face of climate change is another question entirely.

“Quite frankly, no one is making the really hard decisions.”

SOURCE: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/canada-has-a-new-fisheries-act-how-does-it-stack-up/

By Amy Smart
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Significant changes could be coming to the way fisheries are managed in Canada, giving hope for the rebound of some species and the protection of others, says an ocean conservation group.

Josh Laughren, executive director of Oceana Canada, said proposed amendments to the Fisheries Act would prompt the government to rebuild stocks that fall below sustainable levels.

And while the changes still include an “off ramp” for government to make decisions in the interest of short-term economics over longer sustainability, they would require those decisions to be made public, which Mr. Laughren said is a step toward ensuring past mistakes aren’t repeated.

“We’ve kind of sleepwalked through this incredible decline in abundance and it’s been hidden by some of the economics of it,” Mr. Laughren said in an interview.

More than half of the entire value of Canadian fisheries now comes from Atlantic invertebrates like lobster, crab and shrimp, he said, pointing to a 2015 report by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Not only does that make the industry more vulnerable to pathogens and disease, but the profitability of those fisheries have obscured the depletion of other marine species like groundfish. Since 1970, Canada has seen fish biomass decline by 55 per cent, an expert panel convened by the Royal Society of Canada found.

In the United States, fisheries laws have more bite because they clearly define “overfishing,” and when it occurs, action to stop and reverse the impacts is required within months. Forty-five stocks have been recovered since the law was introduced and 28 of the most successful ones were generating 54 per cent more revenue than when they were overfished, he said.

Bill C-68 was introduced a month after the Liberal government was sworn in and had its second reading in the Senate in December.

Mr. Laughren said he’s very hopeful the bill could improve biodiversity in a way that also creates more economic opportunity.

“Abundance provides options, abundance makes allocation a hell of a lot easier and provides more value. I think we’ve kind of forgotten about how important that is,” he said.

Others are more wary.

Paul Lansbergen, who represents commercial fisheries as president of the Fisheries Council of Canada, said that beyond protecting fish stocks the law should also protect “sustainable” fishing rights.

“The most significant policy issue facing the sector is a concern of stability of access to the fishing resource,” he told the Senate standing committee reviewing the bill.

“The use of fisheries is missing in the current wording of the bill.”

Mr. Lansbergen said the council will reserve an opinion on the law until accompanying regulations are revealed. But he told the committee it represents a significant change that will have long-standing implications for the sector and the health of the oceans and fish resources.

Canada’s seafood industry employs 80,000 people and accounts for $7-billion in exports to more than 130 countries.

Mr. Lansbergen said Canada is already a “global leader” in sustainable fisheries management, noting that 80 per cent of wild seafood production is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

He warned against forcing commercial fishermen to give up their licences.

“Taking away long-standing licences and quotas does not respect past investments and has eroded the sector’s confidence to invest and could undermine conservation efforts,” he said.

Martin Mallet, executive director of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, said he’s hoping the bill passes without too many hiccups, adding most fishermen associations in Atlantic Canada support the bill.

Mr. Mallet said the union particularly likes the way the bill would enshrine an existing owner-operator policy into law so it can be better enforced.

It would give stronger protection to East Coast fishermen against unaffordable quota costs that have made fishing more expensive than it’s worth in some other jurisdictions, he said.

“The West Coast fisheries are an example of what could happen if you don’t have this type of regulation. You end up having companies and investors basically buying the rights to the fish,” he said, with fishermen then leasing the quota from them.

It can mean less economic benefit funnelled into local communities, he said.

Bill C-68 also provides new authorities for Indigenous participation in the fisheries along with their co-management.

Terry Teegee, regional chief with the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, said he generally supports the bill but would like even stronger protection for First Nations’ inherent and constitutionally protected rights.

Many of the sections regarding Indigenous participation use language like “may” instead of “shall,” which means it doesn’t compel action, he said.

Mr. Teegee said Indigenous knowledge systems should be recognized on a level playing field with government science. Committing to rebuild fish stocks and habitat restoration could be seen as an act of reconciliation, he said.

“I think the bill itself is better than it was but certainly I think there can be improvements and more commitments to Indigenous people,” he said.

The clock is ticking on the bill head of the federal election this fall but Mr. Teegee said fisheries protection shouldn’t depend on who holds power.
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“Right now we’re seeing climate change and we’re seeing fish stocks declining. We need to really fix things and make some interventions,” he said.

READ MORE: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-conservation-group-says-proposed-amendments-to-fisheries-act-give-hope/ 

NEW YORK TIMES
By Kendra Pierre-Louis

Fish populations are declining as oceans warm, putting a key source of food and income at risk for millions of people around the world, according to new research published Thursday.

The study found that the amount of seafood that humans could sustainably harvest from a wide range of species shrank by 4.1 percent from 1930 to 2010, a casualty of human-caused climate change.

“That 4 percent decline sounds small, but it’s 1.4 million metric tons of fish from 1930 to 2010,” said Chris Free, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Science.

Scientists have warned that global warming will put pressure on the world’s food supplies in coming decades. But the new findings — which separate the effects of warming waters from other factors, like overfishing — suggest that climate change is already having a serious impact on seafood.

Fish make up 17 percent of the global population’s intake of protein, and as much as 70 percent for people living in some coastal and island countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

“Fish provide a vital source of protein for over half of the global population, and some 56 million people worldwide are supported in some way by marine fisheries,” Dr. Free said.

As the oceans have warmed, some regions have been particularly hard-hit. In the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Japan, fish populations declined by as much as 35 percent over the period of the study.

“The ecosystems in East Asia have seen some of the largest decline in fisheries productivity,” Dr. Free said. “And that region is home to some of the largest growing human populations and populations that are highly dependent on seafood.”

Now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Free began the research while a Ph.D. student at Rutgers University.

Marine life has been subjected to some of the most drastic effects of climate change. The oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the heat that is trapped by the greenhouse gases that humans pump into the atmosphere.

A study published in January, also in Science, found that ocean temperatures were increasing far faster than previous estimates.

Amid these changing conditions, fish are shifting where they live, in search of their preferred temperatures. High ocean temperatures can kill off both the fish themselves and the sources of food they depend on.

“Fish are like Goldilocks: They don’t like their water too hot or too cold,” said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University and a co-author of the new study.

In about a quarter of the regions studied, fish had expanded their range. Off the Atlantic coast of the United States, sustainable catches of black sea bass increased by 6 percent over the study period.

Another quarter of the regions saw no significant changes in fish populations, like the northwest Atlantic Ocean, where Atlantic herring are abundant.

But half the regions did not fare as well. The northeast Atlantic Ocean — home to the Atlantic cod, the mainstay of fish and chips — saw a 34 percent decline in sustainable catches.

Over all, more populations of fish declined than increased over the eight decades in the study.

The researchers focused on sustainable catches, using a measure developed by the United Nations that quantifies the amount of food that can be repeatedly harvested from a base population of fish. “Fisheries are like a bank account, and we’re trying to live off the interest,” Dr. Pinsky said.

Several previous studies have predicted that climate change would lead to fewer ocean fish in the future, but the new research looked at historical data to determine that the declines had already begun.
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“This is going to be one of those groundbreaking studies that gets cited over and over again,” said Trevor Branch, an associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, who was not involved in the study. “Most of what I’ve seen before in terms of climate-change impacts have been speculative, in terms of, ‘We think this is what’s going to happen in the future.’ This one’s different.”

The researchers used a data set of 235 fish populations located in 38 ecological regions around the globe. The detailed data told them not only where the fish were but also how they reacted to environmental effects like changing water temperatures.

The team compared that data to records that showed how ocean temperatures had changed over time, broken down by the various regions. These regional analyses were important, because some parts of the ocean have warmed faster than others.

“We then connected those to which populations responded positively, negatively, and which didn’t respond at all,” Dr. Pinsky said.
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The data revealed some other trends. Fish populations in the colder parts of their ranges tended to fare better than those located in warmer areas — for those fish, the extra heat was too much. This was especially troubling to the researchers, because the data they used was less detailed in the tropics. Fish losses in those regions may have been higher than in the regions the study focused on, Dr. Pinsky said.

Warm areas fared even worse when they were overfished. The researchers suggested that overfishing made fish even more vulnerable to temperature changes by hurting their ability to reproduce and damaging the ecosystem.

Guarding against overfishing and improving the overall management of fisheries can help, the researchers said. But ultimately, they said, the solution lies in slowing or halting climate change.
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A separate study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that limiting warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius, above preindustrial levels — a goal of the Paris climate agreement — could result in billions of dollars in extra revenue for fisheries globally. Much of that would be in the developing world, where many people rely on fish for protein.

“We hope that this highlights the importance of accounting for the fact that climate change is driving shifts in productivity,” Dr. Free said of his research. “Fishery managers need to come up with new innovative ways of accounting for those shifts. That includes reducing catch limits in warm negative years, but it can also include increasing catch limits in cooler positive years. Having regulations that are adaptive to climate change is going to be really important for maximizing food potential.”

By BOB WEBER
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Half the country’s chinook salmon populations are endangered and most of the rest are in decline, according to a science committee that monitors the health of wildlife populations.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada reported Monday that of Canada’s 16 chinook populations, eight are endangered, four are threatened and one is considered of special concern.

Only one, located in British Columbia’s Thompson River, is considered stable. The condition of two populations is unknown.

Endangered is the committee’s most serious ranking, suggesting the population is in danger of being wiped out.

“There are some where there is thought to be fewer than 200 fish still remaining,” said committee member and Simon Fraser University fisheries biologist John Neilson.

“At that level, there would be concern about those stocks. That’s why we’re sounding the alarm.”

Chinook salmon are both a major fishery in British Columbia and central to the lives and culture of Indigenous people. Neilson said the new assessment is the most comprehensive the committee has ever done on the fish.

“From other studies and general knowledge on the state of salmon in B.C., there’s a lot of concern,” Neilson said. “These are populations that are at the high end of needing some attention.”

Scientists believe the problem occurs during the part of their lives the salmon spend in the ocean.

Some believe growing numbers of seals and sea lions, which feed on the fish, are behind the declines. Others say the warming and acidifying ocean is starting to affect the food web the salmon depend on.

“It’s a complex story,” said Neilson.

It’s time the federal government use its power to protect the fish and its habitat, he added.
“Our suggestion is that government act quickly.”

The Species At Risk Act allows the federal government to issue emergency protection orders which allow Ottawa to control activity in critical habitat normally governed by the provinces.
The federal government has used the power twice before for the western chorus frog and the sage grouse.

Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said she hadn’t yet seen the assessment but would follow up on its concerns.

“We understand that it is critically important to protect and conserve our native wildlife. We need to fulfill our obligations under the Species At Risk Act.”

She said some measures have already been taken to protect and rebuild chinook salmon stocks.
The committee also released assessments of two other species.

It recommended no change be applied to polar bears, now considered to be a species of special concern.

It also looked at the black ash tree, a common urban tree in civic parks in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. It found that over the last 20 years, an invasive species called the emerald ash borer has killed about two billion ash trees in the Great Lakes Region.
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The black ash is now considered threatened, the committee found.

By Staff The Canadian Press

Atlantic herring is a hearty source of protein for people and marine mammals alike, but like a startling number of Canada’s fish stocks, the plan to rebuild the depleted herring population is currently one big question mark.

That’s a conclusion reached by advocacy group Oceana Canada, which published its second annual fisheries audit Tuesday — a report card assessing the health of Canada’s fish stocks.

The report found Canada has a lot of work to do to reverse the decline of its fish stocks, and it needs to pick up the pace.

Oceana’s science director Robert Rangeley said he hopes the audit is a “wake-up call” for better fisheries management.

“My biggest fear is one of complacency,” said Rangeley. “We’re still hovering around one-third of our fish stocks (that) are healthy, which is very poor performance for the 194 stocks that are so important for coastal communities.”

Only 34 per cent of Canada’s fish stocks are considered healthy. Twenty-nine per cent are in a critical or cautious zone, and perhaps most alarmingly, 37 per cent of stocks don’t have sufficient data to assign a health status.

Some, like Pacific herring in Haida Gwaii, slipped into the critical red zone this year.

The numbers are indicative of the slow policy implementation that plagues management of Canada’s fisheries, Rangeley said. The Oceana team expected to see more stocks move from the uncertain zone into one of the other categories this year, but in fact, the needle barely moved.

On the legislative front, the House of Commons passed revisions in June that will strengthen the Fisheries Act, including direction on rebuilding depleted stocks. If it becomes law and is supported by strong regulations, this could signal a turning point in the health of Canada’s fisheries.

Rangeley said government transparency has improved in recent years, giving his team access to the audit’s necessary data. But scientific reporting and assessment of stocks is slow and incomplete. Scientific and planning documents are often published late, or not at all.

Slow scientific publication means some stocks haven’t been assessed in years – and with the impacts of climate change affecting the ocean at a swift pace, it means some of the health assessments are becoming too outdated to plan around how to help improve the stock.

Of the 26 stocks that are assessed as critically depleted, only three have rebuilding plans in place. And even when those plans are published, the report notes that they are often based on out-of-date scientific assessments.

Atlantic Canada’s fin fish are most heavily represented among the critical stocks.

Rangeley said invertebrates like lobster and crab are more likely in good health than at-risk fin fish like cod and herring. However, rebuilding plans to bring struggling stocks back to health are notoriously slow to appear.

Perhaps the most famous example is the infamous cod moratorium in 1992 that devastated Newfoundland’s fishing communities. Twenty-six years on, there’s no plan in place to rebuild the Northern cod stock.

It’s not just an issue for the depleted stocks, said Rangeley. He recommends that a sense of urgency is applied to stocks in the cautious zone as well as the critical zone, because the more depleted they get, the harder it is to rebuild.

“It’s just a biological reality,” Rangeley said. “Knock ’em down too far for too long, the effort takes so much longer and it’s such a lost opportunity for a valuable seafood industry to just let such a waste occur.”

Striking the balance between a healthy ocean ecosystem and an economically viable, renewable food industry for small communities is not impossible, and it’s been done before, said Rangeley.

To run the fisheries right, more vigilance is required, the report said.

Some form of catch monitoring is in place for more than half of Canada’s stocks but the methods often don’t give a complete assessment of the catch, leading to big data gaps. And 159 stocks don’t have fishing mortality estimates, making it nearly impossible to set sustainable limits on the industry.
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The report recommends investing in science and management capacity, assessing stocks regularly and developing up-to-date, well-enforced rebuilding plans.
It also highlights the importance of timely reporting, and calls for a national ‘fishery monitoring policy’ that would compel all commercial fisheries to sufficiently keep track of yearly catches.

Good planning, Rangeley said, is essential to getting Canada’s fisheries back to a healthy, sustainable level for oceans and for people.
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“You can sustainably harvest seafood indefinitely if you get it right, and we’re not,” he said.

iPolitics
By Holly Lake.

Oceana Canada has released its 2018 fishery audit, and it’s fair to say many of this country’s fish stocks are floundering.

This is the non-profit’s second annual report on the health of Canada’s fisheries, which also assessed efforts to maintain and rebuild them. It found that, in 2018, only about a third (34 per cent) of stocks can be considered healthy — slightly less than in 2017. The number of critical stocks remains the same at 13.4 per cent, while almost 16 per cent are in the “cautious” zone.

“They’re hovering on the brink of dropping down into that critical zone,” 
said Robert Rangeley, director of science at Oceana Canada.

Of Canada’s 26 critically endangered stocks — nearly all of which are in Atlantic Canada — only three have published rebuilding plans.

While there’s been some improvement, a lack of sufficient data means the status of 37 per cent of stocks remains uncertain. For 72 stocks, there wasn’t enough information to assign them a health status.

“We know the stocks in our fisheries aren’t doing well; there’s no question,” Rangeley said. “Unfortunately, it’s not a good news story.”

That said, it’s not all bad news. There’s been progress on investment that’s aiming to turn the tide.

“It’s pretty clear that DFO (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) has put in effort over the last few years,” he said. “They’ve made significant investments in science and in transparency. They’ve committed to departmental work plans, and that’s not only transparency, it’s accountability.”

For that transparency to be fully realized, science information must be made publicly available in a timely fashion. The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) oversees the publication of information related to the management of fisheries and oceans, but, in 2017, fewer than 10 per cent of documents that should have been released following CSAS meetings were published on time.

The report found almost half of the documents were published late: on average, 137.3 days later than CSAS policy timelines call for. More than 40 per cent of expected documents have still not been published.

“How do we manage with that lack of information?” asked Rangeley.

As part of recommendations in the environment commissioner’s 2016 fisheries audit, DFO now creates and publishes annual work plans with priorities and timelines. While these chart a clear course, the department has not met the plans’ prescribed timelines. The report found that only 25 per cent of the work-plan deliverables were completed in the past year.

“We have an unprecedented commitment with these work plans. They’re good plans, so get on with them,” Rangeley said. “When they’re completed, we’ll have more rebuilding plans.”

Fisheries monitoring also remains a real concern, including determining just how many fish are being taken out of the ocean and how many are being caught as bycatch.

Bycatch are the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species.

“If you don’t know what’s there and you don’t know what you’re taking out, the science is pretty wobbly,” Rangeley said.

Keeping track can be done through at-sea or electronic monitoring, mandatory logbooks or dockside monitoring. It’s widely acknowledged that current monitoring tools are weak and inconsistent. A fishery-monitoring policy has been drafted by DFO to address these questions and is now in public consultation. He said “it’s desperately needed” and should clarify what’s coming out of the water.

The federal government has been paying a great deal of attention to the ocean recently, including using its chairing of the G7 to create a blueprint for healthy oceans. Rangeley said Oceana Canada welcomes that, but Canada is still not following some best practices, including legally mandating the creation of rebuilding plans for critical stocks.

But if a revamp of the Fisheries Act — which is now in the Senate — passes, it will set fisheries management in this country on a course correction. Provisions in the bill direct the minister of fisheries and oceans to manage fish stocks sustainably and to put rebuilding plans in place for depleted stocks.

[READ MORE: Fisheries Act overhaul clears House of Commons]

Although it’s clear from the data that stocks are underperforming, Rangeley said there’s no reason things have to stay that way — nor should they, given that fish are an important part of the ocean ecosystem. A healthy ocean is productive, and provides a renewable source of protein for the planet. Key to keeping the ocean healthy is getting the harvest levels right. To do that, rather than manage species in isolation, we should be lessening the stress on them from climate change and pollution.

In a statement, DFO said it welcomed the fishery audit and will be reviewing its recommendations.

The department pointed to several investments that are starting to strengthen ocean protections, including its Oceans Protection Plan, which includes dozens of projects to restore lost habitat, as well as the $197 million announced in Budget 2016 for ocean and freshwater science, which is enhancing DFO’s ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions to support the sustainable management of Canada’s fisheries.

“This funding has increased our capacity to do research, monitoring and carry out state-of-the-art stock assessments,” reads the statement.

Work continues on that front to complete and update Integrated Fisheries Management Plans by developing precautionary reference points and harvest-control rules. Plans are also underway to rebuild major fish stocks in the critical zone, as well as the monitoring policy Rangeley eagerly awaits.

“The department has committed to expedite work in these areas, and will continue to make public our work plans to complete this work,” the statement said.

On the legislative front, in addition to rebuilding depleted stocks, the department says Bill C-68 is intended to promote the restoration of degraded habitat.

Rangeley said the investments are welcome, but they need to continue, along with a sense of urgency.

“We think there’s a huge opportunity to have more diverse fisheries and more value from it.
“I know there’s better science and better management that can be done to get our critical stocks on the path of rebuilding; it’s been proven in other jurisdictions. We know how to do this, the federal government knows how to do this.”
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Investing in the ocean is justifiable, he added. “It’s just so valuable to the health of the planet. As the country with the longest coastline in the world, we’ve got to look after our bit.”