By Kaitlyn Bailey, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Northern BC salmon management plan will take a precautionary approach to manage fisheries, including increased closures for the 2022-2023 year, stated a July 8 news release.
The Integrated Fisheries Management Plan report stated that environmental trends, including high river temperatures, suggest salmon productivity will be below average this year. Salmon productivity refers to the number of adult salmon produced per adult spawning fish.
As a result, key changes in the plan include extra closures throughout the northern Pacific region.
There will be sockeye closures, additional management actions on the Kwinageese and Skeena rivers, and triggers for recreational sockeye fishing at Meziadin Lake.
For Chinook, there will be added closures on the Skeena and Fraser rivers and later starts for fisheries on these waterways.
For Coho, there will be an increase in management actions to decrease the exploitation of the fish, including a more extended-term closure of a mixed-stock Coho-directed fishery in Area F.
The plan report stated that between February and May, the DFO sought feedback on their proposed approach from First Nations, recreational and commercial harvesters and conservation organizations
Comments from the DFO were not available at the time of publication.
Top image credit: The DFO released the northern Salmon Integrated Fisheries Management Plan on July 8, which includes additional closures for the 2022-2023 year. Fishers in June 2021 unloading catch in Prince Rupert. – K-J Millar/The Northern View
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