Deal would cut salmon catch by 30 per cent
Sandra McCulloch
Times Colonist
Friday, May 23, 2008
A new agreement between Canada and the U.S. would cut the harvest of chinook salmon off the west coast of Vancouver Island by 30 per cent for a decade, starting in 2009.
The Pacific Salmon Commission announced yesterday it has recommended a bilateral agreement aimed at conservation and sharing of Pacific salmon between the two countries.
It includes $7.5 million from both countries over five years to improve a system for tagging fish. The tagging process helps monitor fish stocks. The U.S. would also pay $30 million to Canada to lessen the impact off Vancouver Island.
The deal was struck after 18 months of negotiation and requires final approval of the Canadian and U.S. governments.
An agreement in principle announced yesterday came about without the acrimony of an agreement in 1999, said Don Kowal, executive secretary of the commission.
"We did make a major step forward in that we didn't have to hire a special negotiator," Kowal said by telephone from Vancouver.
The biggest change is the section of the agreement that covers chinook salmon, which are harvested in waters off Alaska, B.C., Washington and Oregon. Chinook are difficult to manage because of the multiple age-classes in the ocean at any one time, the variety of migratory patterns and diverse life histories, said a commission background document.
Some chinook stocks are healthy and productive while others are so depressed the U.S. government has declared them to be endangered.
While the chinook fishery will be cut by 30 per cent off the Island, the fishery off Alaska will be cut by 15 per cent. The measures are intended to allow a million more chinook to return to hatcheries and spawning grounds in Puget Sound.
The deal got a lukewarm response from Jeffery Young, an aquatic biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation.
"We were hoping for a better emphasis on using information in season to base fisheries decisions on," Young said.
"It's a somewhat antiquated treaty and they've tweaked it a bit in the right direction, but they never really updated it in a way that makes it robust for the long term."
The Sportfishing Alliance applauded the deal, saying it will stabilize the industry for the future. "Canada and our fisheries resource will be far better off because of what has been achieved here," said alliance president Bill Otway.
If approved, the new deal will be in effect from 2009 to the end of 2018.
smcculloch@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
