First Nations threaten court action over salmon

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There is outrage at environment Minister Stephane Dion and Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan for their recommendation not to list Cultus and Sakinaw sockeye salmon as species at risk.

The First Nations Summit and BC Aboriginal Fisheries Commission say they will take the federal government to court if the federal cabinet decides in favor of this recommendation in January 2005.

"The fact of the matter is [Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)] is going to kill off Cultus sockeye. They're doing it deliberately in spite of the Fisheries Act, which says they're not permitted to do that. So how do you rationalize that? You can't," said Soowahlie chief and member of the First Nations Summit Task Group, Doug Kelly.

"It just seems like a terrible precedent to set," said Ken Wilson, a salmon biologist with the Fraser River Aboriginal Fisheries Secretariat and the Sierra Club of Canada, B.C. Chapter. "Because you're taking somebody's fish away forever. It's not just a temporary problem. Once those fish are gone, that's it. There will be no more sockeye in Cultus after that. And if that's not an infringement of Soowahlie's Aboriginal rights, I don't know what the heck is."

Cultus and Sakinaw are two of three species Dion recommended not to list under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) out of 79 put forward by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Dion recommended to send a third species, the speckled dace, back to COSEWIC for further review. Environment Canada announced the recommendations on Oct. 22 and published them in The Canada Gazette, giving Canadians a 30-day review period to provide their comments or concerns, which will be presented to cabinet in January.

The First Nations Summit and the BC Aboriginal Fisheries Commission wants the sockeye species listed under SARA because DFO will then be obligated to take extraordinary measures to save the salmon.

"We relied on the salmon returning to our systems and now its being over-fished and the people that are over-fishing it could care less as long as they're getting theirs," said Kelly, whose band risks losing the Cultus Lake sockeye that has sustained them for thousands of years.

Kelly said protection of the Aboriginal fishery is a constitutionally protected right, and under Supreme Court of Canada decisions, the government must meet Aboriginal rights to fish for food, societal and ceremonial purposes before allocating fish to commercial and recreational purposes.

"They have a duty, and it's under the Fisheries Act and it's under decisions made under the common law, that they have to do this," said Kelly, calling on Regan to "stand up to the commercial industry" instead of catering to it.

According to DFO officials, they based the recommendations on a socio-economic analysis that indicated the sockeye fishing industry would lose $125 million in revenue over four years if they listed Cultus and Sakinaw salmon under SARA. This would include First Nations fisheries, sports fishing and the commercial industry.

Ken Wilson doesn't buy that argument. After examining two leaked internal documents that criticized the listing decision, Wilson said the socio-economic analysis used to defend the decision is simply not realistic.

"The science is good science, but the economics that was used is sloppy economics, and yet the economics really trump the science," he said.

DFO has launched a million-dollar recovery plan for the two sockeye species. Doug Kelly, who was involved in the development of the recovery plan, said recovery is not possible if DFO continues to use the same management plan that brought the salmon stocks to the critical condition it is now in.

Wilson, also part of the COSEWIC fish species specialist group, argued that even if the DFO's recovery efforts are feasible, the DFO is missing the point.

"We have to adapt and change in order to accommodate the changing circumstances we're facing in the wrld. That's all we're saying. This isn't an isolated problem. It's a major problem that cuts across all of our salmon stocks in B.C., and it's got to be addressed," he said.

Regan has argued that, "It is not possible for fishers to visually distinguish Cultus and Sakinaw Lake sockeye from other larger sockeye populations, and therefore the Fraser River sockeye fishery would have to be shut down if these two populations were listed under SARA."

Wilson told Raven's Eye that to save Cultus sockeye, the DFO would only have to put the Fraser River sockeye fishery on hold for a short period during the late part of the fishering season, and only on the lower end of the river. However, Wilson maintained that terminal fisheries are the best solution for the Cultus; fishing in the terminal lakes instead of the ocean makes it easier to keep track of the salmon populations and is more economically viable.

"The traditional methods [make it cheaper to fish] and the fact of the matter is we don't put out the capital investment. We don't need to buy a huge boat to go chasing fish all over the ocean. They come right by our home and villages. We don't have to go anywhere. They're right there," said Kelly.

BC Aboriginal Fisheries Commission Chair, Arnie Narcisse, said that COSEWIC listed the two sockeye runs as endangered nearly two years ago.

"Obviously, the minister cares more for the bottom line of the commercial salmon fleet than he does for the survival of B.C.'s wild Pacific salmon."

The First Nations Summit also wants to see a change in the way the government manages the fisheries.

"They're being managed to commercial interest as opposed to conservation, at least in our view. Ultimately we're going to see the demise of these salmon runs as we've seen it in the East Coast. It's surely going to happen in the West Coast if the management practices continue," said Grand Chief Edward John of the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council and the First Nations Summit Task Grup. The Carrier-Sekani are equally concerned about the steady decline in numbers of the early Stuart sockeye and have been pushing for a fishery moratorium on the salmon species over the past 20 years.

Kelly said that the Sto:lo First Nations are working together to do their part. Sto:lo fisherman have agreed not to fish in Cultus Lake while the sockeye are there, and instead fish in Chilliwack Lake, which hosts a much healthier stock of sockeye salmon.

Cultus Lake sockeye face another threat aside from over-fishing; a parasite has been killing many of the salmon that have arrived at the lake earlier than normal, explained Wilson. Cultus Lake salmon typically enter the lake in November. Their change in behaviour has baffled scientists.