7/27/2019 Lake Babine Sockeye Fishery at Risk of Unprecedented Closure

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The Associated Press

Terrace, B.C.

Lake Babine sockeye fishery at risk ofunprecedented closure

Published Monday , Aug. 1 2, 201 3 05 :48PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Aug. 1 2, 201 3 05 :51PM EDT

Aboriginal people in British Columbia who rely on Skeena River sockeye are facing someextremely difficult decisions as sockeye salmon returns plunge to historic lows.

Lake Babine Chief Wilf Adam was on his way to Smithers, B.C., on Monday for a discussionabout whether to entirely shut down the food fishery on Lake Babine, something he said would

be drastic and unprecedented but may ultimately be necessary.

The recreational and non-aboriginal fisheries on the lake and Babine River have been shutentirely since the Department of Fisheries and Oceans issued a directive last week, thoughaboriginal people have still been able to f ish in a limited way for food.

But that could change.

If the numbers are the way they are, weve got to close everything down, Adam said. T hatsnot an easy decision to make. Salmon is our livelihood. That is the soul of our being. To denythat from our citizens is not a happy event.

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7/27/2019 Lake Babine Sockeye Fishery at Risk of Unprecedented Closure

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Last month, the department noted returns for the Skeena River sockeye run were dire.

Mel Koty k, North Coast area director for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the

departments monitoring activities were finding one of the lowest runs in 50 years.

Only 4 53,000 sockeye are expected to swim along the Skeena this year, Kotyk said, comparedto approximately 2.4 million last year, forcing all commercial and recreational Skeena sockeyefisheries to be closed.

Conservation groups have sounded the alarm, saying Alaskan commercial fishermen arecontributing to the problem as Skeena River sockeye get caught in the nets of Americans fishingfor pink and chum sockey e.

Kotyk said department scientists dont know why the return numbers are so low.

We dont have anything definitive at this point, Kotyk said in an interview Monday.

Most of the Skeena fish come from the Babine system. And when they went out to sea theyseemed to be v ery strong and healthy and in good numbers, so we think something happened inthe ocean.

He said all parties involved in the fishery are being consulted.

Every one has been very co-operative, he said.

He noted that at this point, there are no concerns about next y ears returns based on the currentpredictions.

But the Headwaters Initiative, an aboriginal non-government organization in northern BritishColumbia, slammed the department for not ensuring the recreational fishery was closed on LakeBabine earlier.

Adam agreed, saying the directive for the lake last week came about three weeks late. Now, hesaid, the department needs to step up enforcement to ensure all fishing on the lake aside fromthe aboriginal food fishery ceases.

Because of mismanagement by DFO on our fisheries, its forcing me to tell the elders and thesingle mothers that there is no salmon for them, said Adam.

It is forcing me to limit what we can do on our lake in regards to the salmon food fish. I have tobalance with the conserv ation measures that are in place now. Weve never seen anything likethis in all these years Ive done this. Ive asked the elders and they have never seen anything likethis at all.

Adam said other species of salmon seem not to be having the same problems as the sockey e.

He said pinks are in the lake in good numbers, as are jack salmon. Jack are two-year-old sockeyethat have returned to the spawning channels two years early.

Adam said they can be cooked, but they cant be dried or smoked, which is how his people havetraditionally eaten them.

And they dont spawn.

What those jacks do in the spawning channels and spawning beds is destroy things. I call them

teenaged salmon. Theyre just there to destroy ev erything.

The one bright spot, he said, is that usually when jack salmon show up, the return for sockeyethe following year is good.

So I have to look at this positively, he said.