Tag Archives: Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative

Rivers & Oceans

Feds launch licence buyback plan to scale down B.C.’s salmon fishing fleet

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ottawa has launched its awaited fisheries licence buyback program to protect plummeting Pacific salmon stocks on the West Coast. 

Looking to fix the problem of too many boats chasing too few fish, on Wednesday, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) unveiled details on its voluntary commercial licence retirement (LRP) program that will pay salmon harvesters to exit the industry. 

Continue reading Feds launch licence buyback plan to scale down B.C.’s salmon fishing fleet →
Rivers & Oceans

Salmon Runs in the midst of a West Coast Drought

The drought conditions settling throughout the West Coast are another example of what Fisheries and Oceans Canada has identified as the #1 threat to BC’s endangered salmon population.

“While there are many stressors that affect Pacific salmon survival, climate change is rapidly superseding these threats,” DFO media spokesperson Lara Sloan emailed Cortes Currents.

Continue reading Salmon Runs in the midst of a West Coast Drought →
Rivers & Oceans

It’s been a long lobby; it just might be worth it

qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: This was one of the last stories that Abby Francis filed in qathet Living before heading off to take the broadcast journalism course at BCIT.

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Joyce Murray said that the Powell River Salmon Society and other community hatcheries will be receiving more money through the $647.1 million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative; she did not specify when or how much money would be given however.

Continue reading It’s been a long lobby; it just might be worth it →
Rivers & Oceans

‘We are salmon people’: First Nation leaders in B.C. demand audience with fisheries minister

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: The Klahoose, Homalco and Tla’amin First Nations are among the 102 First Nations demanding that fish farms be moved onto land.

It’s been nearly five years since Tribal Chief Tyrone McNeil has pulled salmon from the Fraser River and strung fish over wooden racks to dry in the wind, preserving food for his family and his people’s ancestral traditions. 

He and other First Nations leaders and communities in B.C. dependent on salmon are grieving the ongoing disappearance of the fish that defines them. And they are angry Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) continues to deny their constitutional right of first access to fish, said McNeil, president of Stó꞉lō Tribal Council. 

Continue reading ‘We are salmon people’: First Nation leaders in B.C. demand audience with fisheries minister →
Rivers & Oceans

Pacific Salmon Treaty fails to conserve B.C. fish, say advocates

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) is under fire following a report suggesting that Alaskan fisheries are impacting struggling salmon populations by intercepting a significant number of B.C.-bound fish.

Continue reading Pacific Salmon Treaty fails to conserve B.C. fish, say advocates →