A recent scientific study concludes that the dramatic collapse of sockeye stocks in the Fraser River in 2009 was not an isolated event, but was part of a long downward trend in salmon productivity spread over a large area, from Alaska to Washington State. Researchers Randall Peterman and Brigitte Dorner suggest a likely explanation is that something that has an impact over a large area of ocean, where correlated sockeye stocks overlap, is the cause. Fish are surviving from eggs to fry, but appear to be dying in massive numbers after they have turned into smolts and headed out to sea. What went right for the sockeye in 2010 is as mysterious as what went wrong for the returning sockeye in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A modest number of sockeye salmon are predicted to return to the Fraser River this year and the next two, despite the abundance of fish that returned last summer. More here and here

TAGS: Fraser River, sockeye salmon, sustainable, fiisheries, sockeye collapse, low returns predicted

A new book by Australian environmental scientist and policy analyst Jon Nevill concludes that Australia's fisheries management system is riddled with failures, with lax enforcement of federal regulations failing to stop destructive over-fishing. The book is entitled Overfishing Under Regulation. It it contains case studies which show Australia's management of important environmental reforms for fisheries ''is at best incompetent, and at worst dishonest''. The author claims that his research showed destructive fishing practices in Australia, which ranged from by-catch by commercial trawling fleets to the impacts of recreational spear-fishing, were not being seriously addressed. In particular, the book accuses the Australian Federal Government of providing ''false and misleading information'' in a 2002 report on the orange roughy fishery which ''had the effect of under-playing'' environmental damage and unsustainable levels of fishing." More here 

TAGS: Australian fisheries, sustainable, fisheries, Overfishing, fisheries mismanagement, Jon Nevill , destructive fishing practices , by-catch, spear-fishing, environmental damage

On April 17th Congress adopted a budget amendment, offered by Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina, as part of the FY2011 budget. By adopting that amendment Congress voted to defund a controversial fisheries management programme of sharing the catch among individual fishing enterprises. Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch, said in Washington DC, on Friday: " This programme has been blocking access to fish for thousands of smaller scale fishermen, destroying their livelihoods and our coastal and fishing communities. It has already begun consolidating the fishing industry on every coast. It is shocking that, while the thousands lost their jobs in the worst recession in decades and the nation debated spending priorities, our government wasted millions to hand our fisheries over to mostly larger-scale, often corporate, industrialised fishing operations.”

TAGS: fish catch shares, US Congress, sustainable, fisheries, Representative Walter Jones , Food & Water Watch

A federal government policy intended to ensure there is “no net loss” of fish habitat in Canada is failing to achieve its goal, according to DFO experts DFO"s 1986  habitat management policy established a goal of "no net loss." This required that when fish habitat is damaged by development, then an equal or greater amount of habitat should be created or restored nearby, as compensation. DFO experts testifying at the Cohen  Commission stated that fisheries habitat is being steadily eroded because the habitat provided in compensation often doesn’t match in size or productivity the habitat that has been lost to development. Even more alarming was evidence that a 2004 “modernization plan” that DFO has been implementing in an attempt to improve habitat management has met strong resistance within the department because “it is predominantly perceived as lowering the bar on habitat protection.” Some staff felt “the primary objective [of the plan] was to promote economic development.”

TAGS: sustainable, fisheries, fish habitat, habitat erosion, habitat management policy, development, "no net loss"