Native fishing didn't cause salmon shortage

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It is alarming that hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon failed to arrive at

their Fraser River spawning grounds in British Columbia. But to put the blame for this shortfall on the shoulders of commercial Native fishermen is simply the actions of desperate men frantically seeking a scapegoat.

Sockeye fishing on the Fraser River was halted after more than 100,000 of the sought-after fish didn't turn up at their spawning grounds. Similar shortfalls developed among other returning sockeye stocks and official predictions for the sockeye run were cut from seven million to 6.4 million.

In the leanest year of the four-year cycle of the Fraser River sockeye run, the disappearance of 600,000 fish anger commercial non-Native fishermen. Many were strongly opposed to the experimental program started this year to give several Indian bands the right to sell salmon commercially for the first time in 104 years. This comes

two years after the Supreme Court of Canada decision that affirmed aboriginal fishing rights, which are to be superseded only by conservation requirements.

Processors, sports-fishing groups and non-Native commercial fishermen have filed a claim with the B.C. Supreme Court, asking that the Native fishery be declared illegal and unconstitutional. Michael Hunter, president of the fisheries Council of B.C., which represents the province's large fish processors, said the missing fish number more than a million, worth $12 million in lost revenues.

To blame this loss on a Native fishery is ludicrous. Even if the fishery did underestimate its catch and a number of salmon have been lost to poachers, both Native and non-Native, many other factors could be contributing to the drop in sockeye salmon.

The first is the effects of El Nino, a periodic change in ocean wind currents, which created extended harvesting opportunities for coastal fishermen. Many of the missing salmon may have been caught before beginning the journey to their spawning grounds.

The estimation of the size of the salmon run may also have been wrong, according to Patrick Chamut, regional director for the department of fisheries and oceans, and many fish may have died for unexplained reasons as they made their way to the spawning grounds.

Native fishermen are simply feeding their families and taking their places in the realm of commercial fishing alongside non-Native commercial fishermen. Before all the blame for the salmon shortage is laid at their feet, their critics should take a closer look

at the problem. What they find may surprise them.