Poor returns of Fraser River salmon drives up prices
While some of the rivers on Canada's East Coast are seeing unusually high returns of Atlantic salmon, this is not the case on the West Coast. While a 50 year average has returned some 4.4 million Sockeye salmon to the mighty Fraser River, this year approximately 1.7 million fish have returned to spawn. While this number of salmon is about three times the annual return of Atlantic salmon to the entire coast of Norway, it is still some 60% below the 50 year average for this one river.
According to Scott Simpson in the Vancouver Sun, the parent group for this year's return, which migrated into the Fraser system and spawned in 2004, was similarly weak at about 1.9 million fish. Other than a brief opening for commercial and recreational fishermen in July, and some catch by U.S. fishermen under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the only appreciable fishing has been by first nations for food, societal and ceremonial purposes.The commercial and sport fisheries were authorized when a brief July bump in migration created an impression that a major run had arrived off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. But when it became evident that the run was in fact exceptionally weak, the department quickly shut the fishery down. "It became clear that the fish just weren't there and we closed any further commercial opportunities," fisheries department's salmon team leader, Paul Ryall said. The department warned as long ago as December 2007 that this year's run would be exceptionally weak, based on a low number of fish - 521,000 - that made it back to spawning grounds four years ago to birth this year's run. Poor marine survival is also considered a key factor for the ongoing struggles of the species - the survival rate for young salmon to mature to adulthood and return to spawn can run as high as five per cent, or even higher, in a year in which the ocean is a lush, nourishing environment. It's not entirely clear what's causing the survival problem - everything from climate change and shifting ocean currents to ocean acidification have been considered potential culprits.
Meanwhile, shoppers at COSTCO- one of the main sellers of fresh, farmed Atlantic salmon from B.C. farms has in its display cases boneless, skinless fresh Atlantic salmon fillets at a price of CAD$ 16.49 (€ 10.87) per kilo, and some not very nice fillets (see picture) of wild Coho salmon- skin-on, for CAD$ 22.99 (€ 15.15) per kilo. In comparison, whole tenderloins of beef were selling for CAD$ 21.99 (€ 14.49) per kilo. Go figure.
