Evidence of meeting #24 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was hatcheries.
A video is available from Parliament.
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Madame Gill.
We'll now go to Mr. Johns for two and a half minutes or less, please.
6 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Riddell, you talked about international fishing. One thing that people brought to our attention that has raised concerns is the issue of super trawlers and bycatch there as well, in addition to international fishing. Can you speak a bit about that? Is that a concern of yours?
6 p.m.
Science Advisor, Pacific Salmon Foundation, As an Individual
It was a concern of mine, but I think it's a bit dated now because the trawl fisheries that you're talking about and their effect on salmon were in the extreme North Pacific and in the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea pollock used to be the largest fishery in the world. It was highly productive, but it had an enormous bycatch of chinook salmon, into the hundreds of thousands of fish. The U.S. put very severe restrictions on their fishers there so that they now have a quota of bycatch. I think it's still around 80,000—maybe Mr. Hauknes knows—so once you hit that quota the fishery is closed.
There's a huge incentive to not hit that quota. Every vessel has to carry a monitor, and there are films and they report, and they do close the fishery when the quota's matched. So I don't have a huge concern—
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Right. Thank you so much.
Captain Temple, you talked about hatcheries and we talked about the lack of funding. We think about, in your area, the Tofino hatchery, Thornton Creek. The Clayoquot have a hatchery out at Kennedy.... They're on bare bones. Can you talk about how that's impacting volunteers and the work they're doing?
6:05 p.m.
Capt Josh Temple
Yes, certainly. Thanks, Mr. Johns.
Through my work with the local Clayoquot salmon round table, which is, of course, populated by first nations, the province, DFO, the ENGOs, fishermen—both commercial and sport—I understand very well the workings of the local hatcheries. We receive regular reports and updates on their progress and how successful or unsuccessful they've been on gathering brood stock and what their funding situations are like.
We know one thing to be true. When the funding taps are turned off or are completely restricted to a trickle, the number of fish plummet in our local systems because our local systems here, at least the ones that the local community hatcheries have been working on, are highly dependent on the input from those hatcheries. Once the production and the funding are turned off, our numbers of chinook salmon particularly plummet to either close to zero or zero.
Without that funding that we talked about earlier, we don't have salmon returning to our local streams naturally in any meaningful way. We have small returns, but just in my lifetime I've watched those returns go from numbers in the thousands to single digits. Without the hatchery work that is being done by these amazing teams of community hatcheries, we wouldn't have any numbers of fish left in our rivers at all.
6:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Thank you. Do I have time for a quick question? I'd like to give it to Ms. May, actually, if there's time.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
If Ms. May can come up with a quick question, I'll let her go. I'll use the chair's prerogative.
6:05 p.m.
Green
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Thank you, Chair, for using your prerogative, and thanks to my colleague from Port Alberni.
I have a quick question, then, to Dr. Riddell. Given the complexity and the multiple factors here, what would your most concise advice be for the Minister of Fisheries right now? Would declaring an emergency for Pacific salmon help us?
6:05 p.m.
Science Advisor, Pacific Salmon Foundation, As an Individual
I don't think a new name would help. It depends on the action. We need the resources; we need the people. There are many people who will give you way too much good advice, so you need people who can really sort those out. There was a good question earlier about a 1,000 random projects that were all worthwhile locally. They didn't add up to recovery. You need to be thinking in terms of a bigger picture about how to effectively utilize taxpayers' money to restore salmon. It's not going to be easy. You're going to have to be prepared for some failures.
You have to study the issue in the ocean. I'm sorry to keep harping on that, but all these comments about things have changed over time. It's not because hatcheries are doing something different, it's because the environment has changed, or it's because we didn't sustain the local estuary. In Campbell River, you built a marina on top of the most beautiful eelgrass bed I've ever seen in my life. It still didn't stop it. That sort of thing can't continue.
If there's a way to improve things, it may be to give the money to a group that's dedicated to restoration, and do the best thing for it. Get a group that's going to build from knowledge, work together and gain experience. Include people like Mr. Hauknes who has a sincere need for income, and understands the complexity of the fishery.
There are many people who will give you time to do this work. We have to do things a little differently. A friend of mine says if you don't look at what you're doing, you just keep doing the same old thing. That is not very wise management if it's failing.
6:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you for that. Thank you, Ms. May.
I want to thank our witnesses today for appearing before committee, and sharing their wonderful knowledge. It's probably one of the most insightful meetings we've had in a while.
I will remind committee members that there is no committee meeting on Monday because that is budget day. On Wednesday the first hour will be on the final draft version of our report on moderate livelihood. We hope to get that finished. The second hour will be dedicated strictly to committee business. If we get through that quickly in the first hour, we'll have a bit more time for committee business.
Thank you to the staff, clerks, analysts and translators for putting up with us this afternoon.
I wish everybody a wonderful evening. I'll see some of my colleagues tomorrow. We'll see the rest of you back at committee next Wednesday.