Fraser Sockeye 2025
- Thread starter ryanonthevedder
- Start date
ryanonthevedder
Active Member
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
It shouldn't close in marine sectors, and river needs to full open in my opinion. Those numbers are insane. I love how environmentalist are going on about fish farms taking some sort of credit like they saved the day. This has zero to do with it. Get so tired of the ego stroking that group does truthfully.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Base it off the in river gilnet test ratio and size
Pineapple Express
Well-Known Member
Does this indicate that there will be good sockeye viewing on the Adams River this fall? I would love to see the river full of red sockeye!
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
No ths is not the dominant Adams cycle that’s next year
This is a cumulative graph off all the sockeye going by the mission fish counter.
Currently approximately 5million fish have gone by the mission counter on their way to spawn. With 300,000-600,000 a day going by the last few days, currently only 5 other years since 1977 have this many fish gone up the river. The Johnstone straights test seine boat is still catching 8,000 sockeye in one day as of yesterday. This indicates a lot of fish still on the way, as the Johnstone straights fish is a week or more away from reaching the river.
DFO is ignoring all this data and still is sticking to a low return of late run sockeye. It is appalling how out government/DFO is managing this. It is being managed purely off politics and not off of science.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
The chart is a bit misleading is many of those years commercial took millions of fish before they hit the in river counters,
but this year is a very strong showing for sure
but this year is a very strong showing for sure
what’s not misleading is how many fish have gone up the river, with minimal commercial openings this number will no doubt be one of the highest spawning numbers ever recorded. Since it’s already at the 6 highest ever and climbing dramatically! Even if they fully opened today it for all user groups the numbers will still be astronomical.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Category(s):
RECREATIONAL - Salmon
Subject:
FN0841-RECREATIONAL - Salmon - Pink and Sockeye - Lower Fraser River Non-tidal Waters of the Fraser River mainstem - Opening August 22, 2025
Effective one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset each day between August 22, and September 1, 2025, in the waters described below you may retain two (2) Sockeye Salmon per day:
Non-tidal waters of the Fraser River from the downstream side of the CPR Bridge at Mission upstream to the Highway 1 Bridge at Hope; and
Non-tidal waters of the Fraser River from the Highway 1 Bridge at Hope to the downstream side of the Alexandra Bridge.
In the waters described below you may retain four (4) Pink Salmon per day:
Non-tidal waters of the Fraser River from the downstream side of the CPR Bridge at Mission upstream to the Highway 1 Bridge at Hope - Effective one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset each day between August 22, and September 21, 2025; and
Non-tidal waters of the Fraser River from the Highway 1 Bridge at Hope to the downstream side of the Alexandra Bridge - Effective one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset each day between August 22, and September 25, 2025.
Management measures:
- No fishing for Chinook, Coho, or Chum salmon.
- You must not use bait when fishing for salmon.
- Fishing is permissible during daylight hours only.
Anglers fishing for salmon in the Fraser River are required to take every measure possible to ensure that their fishing activities avoid impacts on non-target stocks. This means that anglers are requested to use angling methods that do not catch non-target stocks.
Anglers should be aware that the First Nations food, social and ceremonial fishery is open in this area. Anglers are encouraged to minimize or eliminate any gear conflict in this area. Please be diligent when harvesting and navigating in this area and exercise patience when and if in contact with other fishers.
Variation Orders: 2025-RCT-337, 2025-RFQ-336, 2025-GMB-018
NOTES AND REMINDERS:
Barbless hooks are required when fishing for salmon in tidal and non-tidal waters of British Columbia.
No fishing is allowed within 100 meters of any government facility operated for counting, passing or rearing fish.
It is illegal to willfully foul hook a salmon. If you accidentally foul hook a salmon in the ocean, it may be retained if the species is open to retention. If you accidentally foul hook a salmon in any lake or stream, including the tidal parts of coastal streams, it may not be retained and you must release it immediately with the least amount of harm as possible.
The term "marked", "hatchery marked", or "adipose fin clipped" means a fish that has a healed scar in place of the adipose fin.
All anglers must have a licence to fish in non-tidal waters in BC. Apply for your BC non-tidal waters recreational fishing licence and non-tidal salmon surcharge at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...shing/recreational-freshwater-fishing-licence
Anglers are advised to check at: http://bcsportfishguide.ca and https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...n/fishing-hunting/fishing/fishing-regulations for fishing closures and other recreational fishing regulations and information.
Fishers are encouraged to participate in the Salmon Sport Head Recovery program by labelling and submitting heads from hatchery marked Chinook and Coho Salmon to head depots. The head-off measurement can be used by enforcement officers to assess compliance on size limits if you remove the head from Chinook or Coho. Recovery of microscopic coded-wire tags found inside hatchery marked Chinook and Coho heads provide critical information for coast-wide Salmon stock assessment programs. Contact the Salmon Sport Head Recovery Program toll free at 1-866-483-9994 for further information.
Report suspicious activity or violations by email at DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca or by calling the 24-hour, toll-free Observe, Record, and Report line at 1-800-465-4336 or 604-607-4186 in greater Vancouver.
The 24-hour, toll-free information line for fishery notices regarding openings and closures is 1-866-431-3474 or 604-666-2828 in greater Vancouver.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please contact the nearest Fisheries and Oceans Canada office or visit our website at http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Fisheries & Oceans Operations Center - FN0841
Sent August 19, 2025 at 1607
Salmon Seeker
Crew Member
still no 29-3?
A bit misleading is an understatement, due to the reason you stated.
Chummer
Active Member
Another notice this morning to open up the tidal portion of the Fraser tomorrow. So now both the tidal and non tidal sections open Friday but still nothing for 29-3?
I know its kind of a rhetorical question but what possible justification can there be to open up the in river sections but not the salt?
I know its kind of a rhetorical question but what possible justification can there be to open up the in river sections but not the salt?
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
ps://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gj2CmjneL/
August 21st
, 2025
Statement re Resignation from the PSC Fraser Panel, from Michael Griswold:
A member of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Fraser Panel for 40 years, I officially resigned
from my position August 19th. I did so for the following reason: I could no longer support the
Canadian government’s position on managing Fraser River sockeye.
It is my firm belief that the Canadian management plan was unnecessarily restrictive on this
year’s production of sockeye, which is now assessed at more than four times greater than the
pre-season forecast. It was clearly evident that this year’s run warranted Canadian commercial
harvest opportunities.
I further believe that the decision-making control of the panel was and is being usurped by a
less representative, inadequately equipped group. My assertion is that the directional control
of this group has led directly to DFO neglecting one of its key mandates: controlling and
managing sockeye spawning escapements.
I was, until my resignation, the longest sitting Canadian member of the panel, having been
appointed once the Pacific Salmon Treaty was implemented in 1985. The Canadian caucus of
the Fraser River Panel is essentially a round table encompassing all stakeholder interests,
including First Nations FSC and economic opportunity harvesters, commercial harvesters, and
recreational harvesters. I have studied and learned sockeye management in extensive detail in
my 40-year tenure at the panel. I was appointed both as a commercial industry stakeholder and
as a Canadian with the primary mandate to best represent all of Canada’s interests. I believe
that I have upheld that mandate as the Federal government has continually reappointed me to
the position since 1985.
In my history at the panel, I have witnessed a wide variance of sockeye production from the
Fraser River. I have come to understand how and why this production is affected. When stocks
are weak, harvest opportunities were necessarily constrained. When stocks were strong,
increased harvesting was permitted. Salmon management is dynamic. To effectively manage
salmon stocks, it is incumbent to be flexible in order to respond to the varying abundance. -This
has been the direction and operating procedure of the Fraser Panel from Day 1.
In 2025, this direction and procedure changed. We began the season with an estimate of a 2.5
million adult sockeye returning to the Fraser. We were presented with an escapement plan
crafted by a new body, the Fraser River Salmon Management Board, that laid out spawning targets for the various Fraser stocks. These targets on this forecast were the basis of the 2025
preseason management plan. Little known to the Panel, were the new rules added by this group
that eliminated the options that allowed for enhanced fisheries on increased abundance. In
particular, in the pre-season, there were concerns about the proposed restrictions for the late
run stock group. Because of the relatively small forecast, it was not initially expected that these
restrictions would unduly constrain fishing opportunities. However, when the Fraser sockeye
run returned at greater than 4 times its predicted forecast, currently 9.6 million fish, an
alteration to the pre-season plan was called for. Incredibly, the answer to that call has been ’no’.
In my past experience at the panel, such abundance resulted in commercial fishing
opportunities that were reflective of this realized abundance. These opportunities were crafted
to provide economic benefit and to manage escapement to the spawning grounds. However,
that is not the new guidance being imposed on the Fraser Panel. It is my belief that Fisheries
and Oceans Canada has abdicated its management mandate and has ceded that mandate to the
Fraser River Salmon Management Board, whose membership is narrowly limited.
DFO no longer manages to optimize production. In fact, its refusal to allow warranted harvests
could negatively affect potential production in some specific systems in the Fraser where
strategic population control is absolutely necessary to optimize production.
I resigned from the Fraser Panel because I could not support this new direction in management.
First, there was sufficient abundance of sockeye to warrant significant commercial
opportunities, and yet those opportunities have been denied. Second, there was a late run of
sockeye that was three times greater than forecast, warranting a measured relaxation of the
severe harvest restrictions. And third, I believed that the management mistakes that were made
in the past which adversely affected the production of the Fraser by overescapement, were
about to be made again. Lastly, I could no longer be party to and complicit in the panel process
whose decision-making power, I felt, was countermanded by the veto power newly granted to
the unrepresentative Fraser River Salmon Management Board.
When I warned DFO of these issues, my concerns were dismissed. As a result, I could not, in
good conscience, allow my name to be associated with this misguided, uninformed,
unbalanced, and under representative direction in Fraser River sockeye management.
Mike Griswold
Former Fraser Panel Member of the Pacific Salmon Commission
August 21st
, 2025
Statement re Resignation from the PSC Fraser Panel, from Michael Griswold:
A member of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Fraser Panel for 40 years, I officially resigned
from my position August 19th. I did so for the following reason: I could no longer support the
Canadian government’s position on managing Fraser River sockeye.
It is my firm belief that the Canadian management plan was unnecessarily restrictive on this
year’s production of sockeye, which is now assessed at more than four times greater than the
pre-season forecast. It was clearly evident that this year’s run warranted Canadian commercial
harvest opportunities.
I further believe that the decision-making control of the panel was and is being usurped by a
less representative, inadequately equipped group. My assertion is that the directional control
of this group has led directly to DFO neglecting one of its key mandates: controlling and
managing sockeye spawning escapements.
I was, until my resignation, the longest sitting Canadian member of the panel, having been
appointed once the Pacific Salmon Treaty was implemented in 1985. The Canadian caucus of
the Fraser River Panel is essentially a round table encompassing all stakeholder interests,
including First Nations FSC and economic opportunity harvesters, commercial harvesters, and
recreational harvesters. I have studied and learned sockeye management in extensive detail in
my 40-year tenure at the panel. I was appointed both as a commercial industry stakeholder and
as a Canadian with the primary mandate to best represent all of Canada’s interests. I believe
that I have upheld that mandate as the Federal government has continually reappointed me to
the position since 1985.
In my history at the panel, I have witnessed a wide variance of sockeye production from the
Fraser River. I have come to understand how and why this production is affected. When stocks
are weak, harvest opportunities were necessarily constrained. When stocks were strong,
increased harvesting was permitted. Salmon management is dynamic. To effectively manage
salmon stocks, it is incumbent to be flexible in order to respond to the varying abundance. -This
has been the direction and operating procedure of the Fraser Panel from Day 1.
In 2025, this direction and procedure changed. We began the season with an estimate of a 2.5
million adult sockeye returning to the Fraser. We were presented with an escapement plan
crafted by a new body, the Fraser River Salmon Management Board, that laid out spawning targets for the various Fraser stocks. These targets on this forecast were the basis of the 2025
preseason management plan. Little known to the Panel, were the new rules added by this group
that eliminated the options that allowed for enhanced fisheries on increased abundance. In
particular, in the pre-season, there were concerns about the proposed restrictions for the late
run stock group. Because of the relatively small forecast, it was not initially expected that these
restrictions would unduly constrain fishing opportunities. However, when the Fraser sockeye
run returned at greater than 4 times its predicted forecast, currently 9.6 million fish, an
alteration to the pre-season plan was called for. Incredibly, the answer to that call has been ’no’.
In my past experience at the panel, such abundance resulted in commercial fishing
opportunities that were reflective of this realized abundance. These opportunities were crafted
to provide economic benefit and to manage escapement to the spawning grounds. However,
that is not the new guidance being imposed on the Fraser Panel. It is my belief that Fisheries
and Oceans Canada has abdicated its management mandate and has ceded that mandate to the
Fraser River Salmon Management Board, whose membership is narrowly limited.
DFO no longer manages to optimize production. In fact, its refusal to allow warranted harvests
could negatively affect potential production in some specific systems in the Fraser where
strategic population control is absolutely necessary to optimize production.
I resigned from the Fraser Panel because I could not support this new direction in management.
First, there was sufficient abundance of sockeye to warrant significant commercial
opportunities, and yet those opportunities have been denied. Second, there was a late run of
sockeye that was three times greater than forecast, warranting a measured relaxation of the
severe harvest restrictions. And third, I believed that the management mistakes that were made
in the past which adversely affected the production of the Fraser by overescapement, were
about to be made again. Lastly, I could no longer be party to and complicit in the panel process
whose decision-making power, I felt, was countermanded by the veto power newly granted to
the unrepresentative Fraser River Salmon Management Board.
When I warned DFO of these issues, my concerns were dismissed. As a result, I could not, in
good conscience, allow my name to be associated with this misguided, uninformed,
unbalanced, and under representative direction in Fraser River sockeye management.
Mike Griswold
Former Fraser Panel Member of the Pacific Salmon Commission
OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
Fraser Salmon Management Board
Welcome to the FSMC Fraser Salmon Management Board Page
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
I posted about this years ago
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
As per the SFAB
The DFO letter says that DFO will consult with FN on fishing plans for FSC and that there is now a “mandated body”, the Fraser Salmon Management Council, that “will support engagement, decision making and recommendations relating to management of Fraser salmon.” It then adds that DFO “is working with the Fraser Salmon Management Board (FSMB) to develop a work plan and it is anticipated this process will support planning for the 2021 season.” Are the “Council” and the “Board” different entities and when will the SFAB be invited to participate in this process or processes? The SFAB seeks clarity from DFO as to how this process will integrate with existing multisectoral processes in an inclusive, transparent and collaborative manner.
The DFO letter says that DFO will consult with FN on fishing plans for FSC and that there is now a “mandated body”, the Fraser Salmon Management Council, that “will support engagement, decision making and recommendations relating to management of Fraser salmon.” It then adds that DFO “is working with the Fraser Salmon Management Board (FSMB) to develop a work plan and it is anticipated this process will support planning for the 2021 season.” Are the “Council” and the “Board” different entities and when will the SFAB be invited to participate in this process or processes? The SFAB seeks clarity from DFO as to how this process will integrate with existing multisectoral processes in an inclusive, transparent and collaborative manner.
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