Maybe I am thick in the head and am missing something obvious but here is how it looks to me
The ocean conditions suck, nothing we or our govts can do
Other nations have filled the north pacific with salmonids, nothing we or our govts can do
Other nations are likely high seas drift net fishing, nothing we or our govts can do
Predators such as pinnepeds are likely impacting juvenile out migration, not politically acceptable to do anything large scale at this time
Water licenses are pulling out large amounts of water, govt unlikely to reduce access to farmers and such as we need the food
Hatchery production, expensive and controversial, hard to get $ or buy in, the govt won't throw big $'s here
Climate change, as in forest fires in summer, low water flows in summer/fall, and flood events made worse by lack of trees. Canada is a small player and anything we do or don't do won't have any significant impact.
So that gets us to the only areas that govt has any degree of input
interception fisheries of Fraser bound stocks which include steelhead. This is divided into two areas, commercial and FN.
Commercial fisheries have largely been curtailed, not really by DFO but because of a lack of chum salmon
And FN fisheries are protected by the courts, charter, politicians etc etc so there is no political will to step on toes
And just to top things off
Steelhead are of zero economic value to commercial fisherman, have no value commercially, ceremonially or culturally to FN, and even with recreational fisherman, steelhead angling is but a tiny subset of the group.
thenarwhal.ca
www.canada.ca
