Thank you, Chair. Thanks for the opportunity to be a witness.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation is British Columbia's leading conservation organization. We are the largest and oldest conservation organization, with over 41,000 members in 100 clubs across the province.
As it relates to watersheds, wetlands, salmon, steelhead and sturgeon, our clubs and members spend hundreds of thousands of volunteer dollars and hours conducting habitat restoration across the province, operating hatcheries that were defunded by DFO and advocating for legislative, regulatory and policy changes to support a future that includes abundant salmon and steelhead. As it relates to water, wetlands and fish, the BCWF invests millions of dollars annually in projects working with first nations and other partner groups.
Considering most B.C. presenters will be discussing salmon and pinnipeds today, I will stick to steelhead.
I'd like to remind the committee that steelhead are slightly different from other salmon species in the sense that they survive after spawning. These fish are called kelts. Kelts are capable of returning to the ocean and coming back to spawn a second time as older, bigger fish. Bigger fish means more eggs, which means more offspring.
In the past I've spoken to you regarding the peer-reviewed process through the Canadian science advisory secretariat, which is supposed to be a formal, transparent process for providing peer-reviewed science advice to DFO and the public. This process is integral to Canada's Species at Risk Act, and as it relates to endangered interior Fraser steelhead, this process was completely undermined.
In that process, pinniped predation on smolts and adult steelhead, competition with other salmon in the ocean, interception through fishing, ocean conditions and freshwater conditions were all identified as factors that could support recovery. Out of all those factors, pinniped predation was identified as the single largest driver, but in the report all factors were lumped together without identifying the relative importance of each, which will likely keep DFO off the hook for doing something meaningful to recover these endangered fish.
In the Puget Sound, south of the border, steelhead populations have declined to less than 5% of their historical levels. South of the border, they invest orders of magnitude more into monitoring, research and generally into science and management. The indicators that explain the most variance in steelhead smolt survival included harbour seal abundance, hatchery chinook, salinity of marine waters and river discharge. Seal abundance was the strongest predictor.
As it relates to pinnipeds and steelhead in B.C., the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project has shown extensive predation of steelhead smolts and adults by harbour seals. In the past we have discussed the crash of interior Fraser steelhead, mainly the Thompson River and Chilcotin River fish, which respectively outnumbered 3,000 fish each in 1985 but saw just an estimated 19 and 104 fish in 2022.
These are not the only steelhead populations that are rapidly being managed to zero. On Vancouver Island the story is much the same, but in some watersheds the outcome is even worse. The Gold River on Vancouver Island's west coast was once famous for its steelhead fishing. Winter steelhead snorkel counts were as high as 909 fish in 1999. Since 2019, the annual snorkel count was four, zero, two and zero fish, respectively. The current steelhead population in the Gold River is less than 10% of the watershed's carrying capacity.
Over the past decade, monitoring on the Gold River by provincial biologists and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation has identified consistent use of the river and estuary by harbour seals, when the only notable prey available would have been steelhead, despite being nearly extirpated. Even when there are thousands of tonnes of herring spawning in front of the Gold River, seals have been observed hunting in the river for the few steelhead that remain.
In rivers, steelhead were historically found using runs and pools in the river, and they are now found hiding in rocks in extremely shallow parts of the river to avoid predation. This has recently been noted by anglers and biologists on rivers across Vancouver Island. The Gold River fish are headed for extirpation and will not recover without intervention.
At home with the B.C. Wildlife Federation, after years of webinars and presentations from academics and researchers on salmon regarding the trends around steelhead as well, last week the B.C. Wildlife Federation passed a resolution at its convention and annual general meeting in Nanaimo to support a sustainable and managed harvest of pinnipeds. Our organization and member clubs—which again spend millions of dollars restoring habitat, operating hatcheries and advocating for policies that support a future for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon—now officially supports the management of pinnipeds.
As it relates to steelhead and a number of salmon populations, we are in a crisis. We need to use all of the tools in the tool box in employing adaptive management and, as a country, we need to be laser-focused on outcomes, not process.
I'll end to say that steelhead are endangered; pinnipeds are not.
Thank you for your time.