Salmon’s powerful B.C. symbolism adds importance to Cohen Commission inquiry on sockeye crash

The salmon is a powerful symbol in British Columbia, even if today only a small percentage of people make their living off the fishery.

You have to know that to understand why the Cohen Commission report on the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon run was so eagerly awaited in B.C.

British Columbia has grown and changed since the days when logging and salmon fishing were seen as primary industries. The commercial salmon fishery's wholesale value in 2010 was about $238 million, less than half the sales value of Atlantic salmon raised in B.C. fish farms.

But British Columbians, including newcomers, have embraced the wild salmon as a cultural touchstone. It's as important to the province as the French language is to Quebecers, according to a 2011 opinion poll commissioned by salmon conservationists.

So the virtual disappearance of the 2009 Fraser sockeye run, once the biggest salmon run in the world, shocked British Columbians almost as much as the 1992 collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery, even if its economic impact wasn't as large.

It's as if Saskatchewan suddenly lost the ability to grow wheat.

In the fall of 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed former B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen to find out what happened to the salmon. The result after almost two years of hearings and mounds of scientific evidence, was 1,200-page doorstop of a report tabled this week.

As media reported, Cohen found no "smoking gun," but pointed to a combination of factors — the climate change-induced rise in water temperature, disease, predators, fish-farming near salmon migration routes, among other things — for a two-decade decline that resulted in only one million sockeye returning to spawn in 2009.

[ Related: No 'smoking gun' for Fraser River sockeye salmon collapse ]

Cohen made 75 recommendations, the most controversial of which is likely to be the closure of dozens of fish farms, whose coastal net pens are seen as magnets for disease and parasites such as sea lice. He also called for an immediate cap on expanding the industry in the Discovery Islands area while more research is done into the impact of fish-farming on nearby salmon routes.

And Cohen pointed the finger at the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), suggesting it had a conflict of interest between its promotion of the lucrative aquaculture industry and its responsibility to protect wild salmon stocks.

"As long as DFO has a mandate to promote salmon farming, there is a risk that it will act in a manner that favours the interests of the salmon farming industry over the health of wild fish stocks," Cohen said.

Not surprisingly, wild salmon advocates were delighted with Cohen's report. Biologist Alexandra Morton, a longtime opponent of ocean-based fish farms, told The Tyee it was "astonishing." She urged British Columbians to tell their MPs they believe "wild salmon are important," and to push the B.C. government not to renew fish-farm licences, as well as consult First Nations (some of whom, incidentally, operate fish farms).

Fish farmers were a bit more guarded in their response.

Stewart Hawthorn, a member of the board of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said:

"We're very happy with Justice Cohen's praise of the quality and quantity of our data," Stewart Hawthorn, a B.C. Salmon Farmers Association board member, told The Tyee." He didn't ask us to stop farming, just to do more research, which we're happy to do."

Cohen focused on aquaculture in the Discovery Islands, Hawthorn pointed out. He didn't indict the whole industry.

"This is a small region, and he didn't mention all fish farms as a concern," Hawthorn said.

The key, of course, is how Ottawa will react. The Globe and Mail noted that in his report, Cohen criticized the Harper government for pushing ahead with legislation to amend the Fisheries Act, intended to expedite resource development, while the inquiry was still under way.

[ Related: Salmon inquiry report skewers Ottawa approach ]

"The Government of Canada suspended several processes pending the results of this inquiry," Cohen wrote.

"It is regrettable that the legislative amendments, especially those related to the Fisheries Act, could not also have waited until the Government of Canada had the opportunity to consider this report."

B.C. New Democrat MP Fin Donnelly accused the Conservative government of mismanaging the the fishery.

"The Conservative government dismantled environmental regulations during the last two years, making deep cuts to DFO, all before hearing the recommendations of this commission," he told The Tyee.

The department is being hit hard by budget cuts, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, with layoffs and the closure of regional field offices involved in monitoring coastal fisheries and fish habitat.

But the government insists it's committed to the viability of the B.C. salmon fishery.

"We will continue to work with stakeholders and partners, and review the Justice Cohen's findings and recommendations very carefully," B.C. Conservative MP Randy Kamp, parliamentary secretary to Acting Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea, said Wednesday in a news release.

"I want to assure Canadians that we, like all British Columbians, want to see a sustainable and prosperous salmon fishery for years to come."