A report commissioned by the Sierra Club of Canada says at least 38 British Columbia sockeye runs are endangered, with a good chance that many more are at risk as well.

"It's not just the Fraser River sockeye that are going missing all these years," said Vicky Husband, conservation chair of the environmental group, in a press release. She said most of these stocks were from the coast's "most pristine areas" and were declining for a variety of factors, such as mixed stock fishing, global warming, and because "the Department of Fisheries and Oceans hasn't been protecting them against overfishing."

According to the report, 38 sockeye stocks are known to have declined to the "endangered" level recognized by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, a committee of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in some danger of disappearing. These stocks are currently below 25 percent of their baseline population levels.

The report's author, Dr. David Levy, an independent fisheries consultant, said the status of even more sockeye stocks is "unknown" because of fish-agency budget cutbacks. The report included recommendations that called for building coast-wide conservation strategies, shifting harvest to terminal areas, better stock assessments, and more involvement of tribes, along with adopting a new conservation benchmark of the population level that would trigger a listing by the committee.

The report said some of the stocks declined as a result of reduced marine survival after 1982 when returns per spawner plummeted, but that has since reversed, though it will take decades of favorable conditions for the populations to reach full recovery.

Levy reported that the late return of some Fraser River stocks is likely due to a northerly shift in their distribution in the North Pacific when ocean conditions are warmer. When the fish show up two to six weeks later than usual, warm water discharge in the Fraser has sometimes been responsible for massive die-offs of returning spawners, though some fishing groups blame unreported tribal catches for low returns to spawning grounds up to 1,500 km. from the mouth of the river.

The following links were mentioned in this story:

BC Sockeye Salmon Population Declines, Probable Causes and Recommended Response Strategies, February, 2006