For starters, I'd like to say thank you to the committee and in particular to my MP, Bernadette Jordan, for inviting me to participate in this meeting to discuss the state of Atlantic salmon. It's an honour to be included, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share some of my thoughts, concerns, and ideas about this important species with the committee.
As mentioned, my name is Brooke Nodding, and I am the executive director of Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation. We're located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Coastal Action is a community-based charitable organization with a mandate to address the environmental concerns along the south shore region of Nova Scotia. The organization's goal is to promote the restoration, enhancement, and conservation of our ecosystem through research, education, and action.
Coastal Action has been an established member of the Lunenburg County community since its inception in December of 1993, and I have been leading the organization as executive director since April of 2001. Over the past 20-plus years, Coastal Action has successfully completed a vast number of projects within the south shore region of the province. Project themes have included such issues as river restoration; water quality monitoring; fisheries research; endangered species projects addressing the roseate tern, Atlantic whitefish, Atlantic salmon, and American eel; marine protected areas; microplastics and marine debris; climate change and pollution prevention initiatives; and clean boating. Those are just to name a few.
I'm here today specifically to talk to the plight of the Southern Upland Atlantic salmon, one of five designatable units of Atlantic salmon found in Nova Scotia. This population assemblage can be found in watersheds extending from the northeastern mainland near Canso along both the eastern and south shore regions of the province and into the Bay of Fundy southwest of Cape Split, an area covering a little more than half of Nova Scotia.
Historically, Southern Upland salmon have been known to exist in at least 72 different watersheds within this region. The South Upland designatable unit was assessed by the committee on the status of endangered wildlife in Canada as endangered in November of 2010 and is currently under review for listing on schedule 1 through the federal Species at Risk Act.
Based on genetic evidence, regional geography, and differences in life history characteristics, the Southern Upland designatable unit is considered to be biologically unique and would be an irreplaceable loss of Atlantic salmon biodiversity if extirpation or extinction were to occur.
Much of the data on the status and trends of Southern Upland salmon come from the two indexed rivers in the province, the LaHave River located in Lunenburg County and the St. Mary's River located in Guysborough County. Similar to the case with all other Atlantic salmon populations, Southern Upland salmon numbers have experienced a drastic decline from the numbers observed in the 1980s and even the 1990s. Population modelling for salmon in both the LaHave and St. Mary's Rivers indicates a high probability of extirpation—87% and 73% respectively—within the next 50 years in the absence of human intervention or a change in survival rates for some other reason.
Threats to the species have been identified through the recent recovery potential assessment exercise conducted by DFO in 2013. These include acidification, altered hydrology, invasive species, traditional stocking methods, habitat fragmentation, illegal fishing and poaching, aquaculture, and marine ecosystem changes. It is important to note that addressing any one of these threats in isolation will not likely lead to positive population gains. A broad recovery plan addressing multiple threats would be a far more effective approach.
In response to public concerns around DFO's involvement in recovery efforts for the Southern Upland salmon, a meeting was held in June, 2013, involving both DFO representatives and invited stakeholders. As a result of this meeting, the Southern Upland salmon collaborative project's working group was established to identify internal and external client issues and priorities for Southern Upland salmon and to determine which of these would benefit most from collaboration with DFO population ecology division staff and how these collaborations could be accommodated, given current resources. The role of the working group was to focus on scientific projects associated with research, monitoring, data management, and advice with regard to conservation efforts aimed at the species.
From this working group, a list of 13 priority Southern Upland salmon rivers was developed and a number of subcommittees formed. The 13 priority rivers were chosen based on the following criteria: salmon were present in the river, based on the latest electrofishing survey results; the population primarily consisted of a wild native strain of salmon; there remained a relatively good pH in the system; there was an active community group in the area; the river had ample available rearing habitat; and it contributed to a diverse group of priority watersheds.
The subcommittees were developed to address the priority threats as identified by the stakeholder groups and included the following: habitat fragmentation, acidification, estuarine survival, and water quality.
In addition to these priority threats, projects were developed around supportive rearing. There's a kelt rejuvenation project in the St. Mary's system and and a proposal on invasive species for the LaHave River.
Based on what we know about Atlantic salmon in the Atlantic region, the time to act is now. The Southern Upland designatable unit, or DU, if let alone, is in serious trouble. Presently there are still large enough numbers of fish remaining in the wild to achieve recovery targets, keeping intact the genetic diversity of the population.
There exists an external capacity to conduct research and carry out projects outside of DFO through established membership of the Southern Upland Collaborative Projects Working Group. There are active projects going on in some of the identified priority watersheds that could be expanded or improved upon with more resources.
However, all of this capacity and momentum could easily be lost without a renewed commitment from the federal government and without adequate resources directed towards both research and conservation restoration activities. Cuts to DFO science have significantly reduced DFO's ability to address any of the larger Atlantic salmon research questions. The trend of cutting resources in the face of declining population numbers must be reversed if we are serious about the recovery of the Southern Upland salmon. Additional resources prior to the listing of a species could go a long way in preventing Southern Upland salmon from experiencing the same fate as their closest neighbours, the inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon.
The recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, the RFCPP, allows for groups to deliver important on-the-ground habitat improvement projects. However, the program does have its shortcomings, in that it does not allow for monitoring activities and is extremely strict around the amount of funds that can be allocated to planning activities.
Although the RFCPP funds can be used for chemical manipulation projects, the limited scope of the program makes it unrealistic for many of the acid mitigation projects and solutions being proposed for the Southern Upland region of Nova Scotia. A review of this program to address some of these issues would be beneficial and help with the larger recovery efforts for the Southern Upland salmon.
In conclusion, the window of opportunity for recovery of the Southern Upland salmon is rapidly closing.
There are many important initiatives ongoing that continue to need support and resources: the liming project on the West River Sheet Harbour, the catchment liming pilot project in Gold River, the aluminum toxicity work being done on various rivers across the Southern Upland region, large-scale habitat restoration efforts and the kelt rejuvenation project in St. Mary's River, and the proposed invasive species work on the LaHave River.
Let's all work towards achieving a positive result for Atlantic salmon by being proactive in our approach to dealing with the Southern Upland salmon before is becomes a federally listed species.
Thank you.