Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery will remain closed. (Photo: Stockfile/FIS)

Low sockeye salmon returns lead to Fraser River fishery closure

CANADA
Thursday, July 27, 2017, 02:30 (GMT + 9)

The Pacific Salmon Commission's Fraser River Panel decided to close the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery, in British Columbia, after lower than expected returns from two early runs.

"The initial testing we've been doing and assessments are indicating [returns are] not very good at all," Mike Lapointe, chief biologist of the Pacific Salmon Commission, told CBC .

The biologist clarified that so far, only the early Stuart and early summer Fraser River sockeye runs have been assessed, which represent only a small fraction of all the sockeye expected to return to the Fraser this summer.

He added that that means things may improve with larger, later runs, but it is not a good sign.

This year had been forecast as an improvement over last summer's record-low sockeye salmon returns, when fishing remained closed on the river.

At present there are no known reasons to justify this low returns. In Lapointe’s view, a "leading hypothesis" is warmer ocean temperatures two summers ago, which is known as "the Blob."

That catchy nickname refers to a zone of warm water, up to 3 °C warmer than average temperatures, that made headlines in 2015.

“It's likely the salmon returning to the Fraser now would have hit the Blob in the Gulf of Alaska that summer — as two year old fish — and suffered mortality as a result,” said Lapointe.

The Fraser River Panel will meet again this Friday and continue its assessments as the larger early summer run starts its migration.

"I hope it does change for the positive. But you have to be realizing there are a bunch of these fish that are somewhere between the Gulf of Alaska and the Fraser River and we don't know how many there are, and we've got to be honest about that," concluded the biologist.

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