“Steelhead, they’re the canary in the coal mine. They’re showing us what poor ocean survival, poor river habitat and unselective fishing can do” to a species. — Jesse Zeman, Executive Director, BC Wildlife Federation.
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Commercial fishermen in British Columbia anticipate a lucrative harvest of Fraser River sockeye salmon this season, but conservationists fear critically low inland rainbow trout remain at risk due to a federal decision to delist them. Danger of extinction.
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In 2019, federal officials refused to list rainbow trout from the Thompson and Chilcotin Rivers under the Species at Risk Act, due to adverse impacts of the closures on First Nations and commercial fishing, despite a recommendation from emergence of the scientific group that advises the government on endangered wildlife.
Now, the BC Wildlife Federation alleges that managers at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are disregarding scientific advice in making decisions and prioritizing commercial opportunities to fish at the expense of rainbow trout conservation.
“The challenge right now is that DFO will continue to use science that was not supported (by the Canadian science advisory secretariat) to justify vacancies,” said Jesse Zeman. “There is a fundamental flaw in that approach.”
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DFO was asked to take action after a 2018 emergency assessment by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife warned of woefully low returns in 2017 of just 104 fish to the Thompson River and fewer than 50 to the Chilcotin River. .
Historically, the Thompson River saw 3,510 spawners and the Chilcotin 3,149 as of 1985.
Instead, DFO’s decision was to work with the province to implement an “action plan” aimed at improving in-stream habitat and reducing fishing pressure with continued closures to try to prevent interception by commercial fishermen.
Federal officials felt that an endangered list “would produce suboptimal ecological, social, and economic outcomes” compared to the “long-term collaborative action plan.”
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The wildlife federation recently received the results of a DFO communications request under the federal Freedom of Information Act that yielded a 481-page chain of emails and documents on how to submit the plan.
It included lines from the media on how to refute questions about why the species was not placed on the endangered species list.
However, with expectations for even more catastrophically low returns this year, estimated at just 19 fish for the Chilcotin River and 104 for the Thompson River, Zeman said that plan won’t be enough to protect the species when every individual matters.
An endangered listing under the Species at Risk Act would have made it illegal to “kill, harm, harass, capture, or take an individual” of a species, requiring more comprehensive closures to prevent any rainbow trout bycatch in commercial or recreational fisheries. .
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The DFO Thompson and Chilcotin Rainbow Trout Recovery Potential Assessment, compiled in response to the COSEWIC emergency report, recognized that “any damage will inhibit or delay the potential recovery” of the populations due to their very low abundance.
However, it also stated that “(permissible) damage should not be allowed to exceed current levels and should be reduced to the greatest extent possible.”
Zeman said DFO has not made public background reports from the Recovery Potential Assessment review process that justified the decision not to list rainbow trout as endangered.
And to fisheries scientist Eric Taylor, the goal of not allowing damage to increase sounds “ridiculous, it needs to be removed,” considering the critically low numbers.
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“The problem is that politicians don’t understand the truth,” said Taylor, a conservation biologist in the zoology department at the University of BC and a former COSEWIC president.
In one case, DFO downplayed scientific concerns about the threat of growing seal and sea lion populations to fragile rainbow trout, Taylor said.
In another, rainbow trout are at risk of being caught as bycatch in mixed gillnet fisheries, which are still allowed, “so nothing is being done in terms of the main threats to these fish.”
“Changes are being made to the documents that water down the threat and give a skewed picture of what’s going on,” Taylor said.
For its part, DFO “is committed to sharing information about Inner Fraser River rainbow trout,” according to a background email sent to Postmedia by communications manager Dan Bate in response to questions.
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The response also states that the process has not finished. In 2020, COSEWIC reassessed rainbow trout populations after their 2018 emergency finding and confirmed their endangered status.
“A new process is underway to support a (federal cabinet) decision on whether or not to list them under the Endangered Species Act,” according to the DFO response.
“DFO is working with (the province) to identify the scientific advice needed to move forward with the listing process,” he said.
Meanwhile, DFO’s integrated fisheries management plan for the region includes “management measures to reduce rainbow trout bycatch mortality.”
Zeman would prefer that DFO support research into selective fishing methods, such as fishwheels and fish traps, rather than net fishing on rainbow trout migration routes.
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Rainbow trout are like salmon in that they migrate out of their natal streams to mature in the open ocean, returning to spawn in four-year cycles.
Unlike salmon, some rainbow trout survive spawning and return to the ocean for another two to three years, only to spawn again as larger, more productive fish.
“The Thompson hasn’t had those second returns for decades,” Zeman said. “The other thing about rainbow trout is that they are the canary in the coal mine.
“They are showing us what poor ocean survival, poor river habitat and non-selective fishing can do” to a species.
