Mr. Speaker, the member was quite wrong in his preamble and quite wrong in his last statement. The minister has made it very clear that he believes in conservation and protecting the fisheries.
Just to establish some of the facts, harvest management plans for Pacific salmon in 1998 were based on two conservation objectives: zero fishing mortality for upper Skeena and Thompson River coho salmon stocks, and where these stocks were not prevalent, only selective fisheries which clearly demonstrated that the risk of coho bycatch would be minimal were permitted.
The sport fishery that the hon. member for Delta—South Richmond is concerned about is at Langara Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. This fishery was designated an experimental pilot sport fishery for chinook salmon. There was non-retention of coho. Even though fishers could not keep the coho they encountered, departmental scientists accounted for a portion of the coho that may have died after being released.
Two methods were used to estimate the number of coho encountered in this sport fishery: a creel survey estimate by the Haida first nations and an estimate by departmental patrolmen.
Using an accepted mortality rate of 10%, it was estimated that coho mortalities ranged from 4,500 to 13,100, far less than the member is accusing us of. Even using a significantly higher rate of 20%, the estimated mortality of Skeena coho from the experimental sport fishery at Langara Island was only .4%. This is considerably less than the mortality resulting from the north coast commercial fishery which was estimated to be 2% to 3%.
These successes are a direct result of the management policies introduced in 1998 and reflect our commitment to conservation. We intend to put fish first, and the minister is certainly doing that.