BC Wildlife Federation has serious concerns about salmon poaching

As recently as 2012, the mid and upper Fraser River was patrolled by 15 officers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

According to the BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF), that number has shrunk to six, which includes three trainees.

The BCWS claims that patrols of the Fraser River have been reduced by 90% over the last two years in some regions, leaving spawning sockeye salmon at the mercy of poachers.

“The Government of Canada has wiped out morale within DFO, abandoned the public interest and the conservation of salmon and steelhead on the Fraser,” said BCWF executive director Jesse Zeman.

“We are seeing an exodus of passionate professionals dedicated to the conservation of salmon and steelhead from the federal and provincial governments. If there ever was a signal that the DFO no longer cares about conservation, this is it.”

The price of neglect is high, the BCWS says, as evidenced by the DFO’s revised run size estimate for Fraser River sockeye in late September.

The number was down by more than 100,000 fish, to just 456,000, which is the second lowest figure ever recorded for this cohort.

More than 15,000 fish are estimated to have been harvested illegally, the BCWS says, around 2.5 times the number of sockeye that have been caught illegally.

According to Randy Nelson, a former fisheries officer and poaching expert, as well as the author of The Wildest Hunt, surveillance levels are “a tiny fraction of historical levels.”

“We used to do many thousands of hours of patrols on the river and in the air to control poaching,” he noted. “Today, enforcement is effectively non-existent.”

Nelson says the DFO’s issues with funding and surveillance can be traced right to the top, with a “total lack of support” from Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier.

As a result, he claims, BC’s fisheries are “uniquely at risk” and the “lack of oversight has been a disaster.”

Nelson is calling on an independent multi-stakeholder group to hold the DFO accountable.