Wild salmon are dying
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 23 August 2017 21:00
- Written by editor
BC's wild salmon are collapsing before our eyes.
Tell Minister LeBlanc to relocate funds for salmon-saving monitoring projects.
Send a messageWild salmon stocks are collapsing before our eyes.
BC’s wild salmon population is down 70 percent since the 1980s, largely from over fishing. [1-2] On top of that, UBC researchers say that rising water temperatures due to climate change could reduce the amount of Pacific salmon by up to an even further 30 per cent. [3]
Shockingly, it was just revealed in a Simon Fraser University study that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) failed to uphold the commitments of its Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy and didn’t monitor 50 per cent of managed salmon populations. [4-5] Without this salmon-saving monitoring, DFO could blindly allow overfishing to wipe out wild salmon from fragile streams.
DFO already has the money to put into researching which wild salmon populations are safe to fish and which are not, all they have to do is allocate one per cent of its $1.4 billion in new federal funding for the Pacific Region to the project. [6] All we have to do is demand that they do it - if enough of us do, we can convince them to move the funds.
Tell Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc to invest in salmon-saving research before it’s too late.
By failing to monitor its managed salmon populations, DFO is signing a death warrant for wild salmon. If they had conducted the research they promised to, we could have saved 42 per cent of threatened wild salmon populations through better management that gives vulnerable populations a chance to rebound. [7]
The wild salmon fishing industry contributes $500 million and 4,000 jobs to Canada’s economy. [8] Commercial and First Nations food-fisheries are already closing because of devastated wild salmon stocks.[9] Without the information promised from the DFO, we don’t even know where it is safe for the remaining fisheries to operate.
Our only chance to save wild salmon from impending extinction is to defend the most vulnerable wild salmon populations from commercial and recreational fishing, which we can only do with proper monitoring.
Sign the petition to demand the DFO conduct salmon-saving monitoring.Pacific salmon are a pillar of the Pacific Ocean’s ecosystem, our economy and BC First Nations peoples’ cultural history. Losing BC salmon would be a crushing blow for the region, and for Canada.
Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc has buckled to public pressure before. Amid outcry, LeBlanc said the DFO will do anything it can to protect the dying Right Whales on Canada’s East Coast. If enough people apply similar pressure to protect wild salmon on the West Coast, we can convince Minister LeBlanc to address this crisis with the same urgency and relocate its existing funds.
Pressure Minister LeBlanc into reallocating 1% of funds to monitor dying BC salmon.
#SaveBCSalmon
Let's save the salmon together,
Rachel and Jolan, on behalf of the entire Leadnow team
Sources:
[1] Record low salmon monitoring earns federal government a failing grade for conservation says SFU experts. http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2017/08/record-low-salmon-monitoring-earns-federal-government-a-failing-grade-for-conservation-says-sfu-experts.html
[2] Amid closure, BC salmon fisheries study finds feds failed monitor stocks. https://www.desmog.ca/2017/08/21/amid-closure-b-c-salmon-fisheries-study-finds-feds-failed-monitor-stocks
[3] See [2]
[4] See [1]
[5-8] See [2]
[9] See [1]
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