VANCOUVER — Optimism over an expected bumper season for wild British Columbia sockeye salmon has turned to distress, after a regulatory body’s estimate of returns to the Fraser River dropped by nearly half this week.
The Pacific Salmon Commission’s pre-season estimate of 9.8 million returning fish went down to 5.5 million Monday, prompting environmentalists and fishers alike to express concern.
“It’s disturbingly bad,” said Greg Taylor, senior fisheries adviser with Watershed Watch Salmon Society.
Hopes were high for the sockeye run this year in part because the fish return to spawn in the Fraser River on a four-year cycle, with 2022 being one of the expected peak years, he said.
The low figure raises conservation concerns and suggests the sockeye fishery in B.C. waters is unlikely to open this year, creating what a commercial fishers’ union says are dire circumstances for its members.
It came days after a less-conservative estimate sparked tension between U.S. and Canadian officials.
The commission, which was created jointly by the United States and Canada to manage Pacific salmon stocks, estimated last Thursday that the run would be 7.2 million before dropping that figure further.
While the U.S. accepted the commission’s assessment last week and allowed its sockeye fisheries to open over the weekend, Canada’s Fisheries Department urged a more conservative count and Canadian fisheries remained closed.
“The United States agreed with our recommendations last week and Canada wanted to see a number even lower than what was recommended,” said Fiona Martens, the commission’s chief of fisheries management programs.
Martens said the commission makes its best guesses based on test fisheries and models. The number of fish returning was still trending upward on Thursday, but had not yet peaked, she said.
“In order for us to come up with the best run size, we need to see a peak in that data. We weren’t seeing that last week, so there was definitely some uncertainty,” Martens said.
The U.S. fisheries have since been closed, she said.
Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray was not available for an interview and the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife did not return a request for comment.
Kevin Lemkay, a spokesman for Murray, said the government is following the panel’s decision “with great concern” for both wild salmon and Canadian harvesters.
“DFO was clear during negotiations that it believed (the commission’s) run size estimates were far too high and were extremely disappointed to see fisheries proposals allowed based on overly optimistic estimates of run sizes,” Lemkay said in a statement.
While Canada is happy the commission has since adopted a more “precautionary approach,” he said the government is equally disappointed that sockeye runs are proving weaker than expected.
Fishers expressed dismay at both the missed opportunity to fish and the lack of support they felt from government. For Kyle Louis, who fishes out of Steveston, B.C., learning that his U.S. counterparts were hitting the water while he was forced to dock was heartbreaking.
“Fortunately for myself, I’m engaged in other fisheries. I do crab, prawn, herring. But for the mom-and-pop operations that only have gillnet licences and solely rely on that, they’re going to be forced to sell their boats, they’re going to be forced to sell their gear,” he said from Cowichan Bay.
James Lawson, president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union-UNIFOR, said some commercial fishers went out to sea thinking they would be fishing and can’t afford to make it home with no catch.
The federal government isn’t offering enough transition support to fishers as the industry crumbles around them, he said. Employment insurance is inaccessible when tied to income that doesn’t exist and licence fees should be reduced for financial relief, he said.
“They should be seeking a labour force adjustment for us, maybe some disaster relief,” he said, noting fishing has been limited for years.
The union believes in acting upon the best available science and it agrees with the commission’s estimates, including Thursday’s, which provided for temporary harvesting, he said. Now that he peak has passed, the brief chance to fish is gone.
“What little opportunity there was, the Americans took effectively, leaving us out of the water. They beat us to the punch while our government kept us tied to the dock,” he said.
Lemkay said the impact to harvesters is not lost on the minister. The government is developing a licence buyback program with input from licence holders through the $647-million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative. Supports will also be offered to dispose of vessels and non-selective fishing gear, he said.
The small Fraser runs are a concerning anomaly that may point to the impact of human activity, according to Taylor.
Notably, sockeye returns to other parts of the North Pacific, from Russia to the Columbia River, have been strong, he said. They include British Columbia’s Skeena River and Barclay Sound.
The weakest Fraser returns are in the southern and eastern parts of the watershed where humans have altered the landscape, he said. Poor runs this year include the famed Adams Rivers run and others in the Kamloops and Shuswap areas.
“That raises a few questions. You know, that’s where a lot of the population lives, that’s where we humans have really manipulated the habitat,” he said, adding that climate change is also contributing to warming waters, wildfires and other negative local impacts.
Declines of Fraser River sockeye may be canaries in the coal mine, potentially reflecting the health of the Salish Sea and land around it, he added.
“I hate to use that tired old metaphor, but they truly are,” he said.
The numbers should send warning signals to all British Columbians for a need to reform logging practices and protect and rehabilitate habitat, he said.
“The future does not look good for poor salmon unless we do that.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
