Is there a future for salmon farms in Canada?
The sporting thing
Does the tourism industry have a negative
effect on a natural resource already strained to the
gills?
By Asha Jhamandas
The early seventies were the zenith years of the wild Atlantic salmon. North American rivers
teemed with the return of healthy, sustainable populations of upwards of 1-1/2 million fish
year after year. But today, sadly, those same rivers host only a fraction of that population
— about 500,000 — making sustainable fishing an important issue for anglers.
In an effort to bring back salmon populations, Canada has gradually closed down its large
commercial fisheries, leaving only the smaller First Nations, subsistence and sport fisheries
in operation. With the salmon population remaining small, “Any significant
harvest is a big chunk of the change,” says Dr. Fred Whoriskey,
vice-president of research and environment at the Altantic Salmon Federation. “So part of
our job is to promote the conservation benefits of catch and release fishing over catch and
kill.”
Catch and release fishing allows anglers to enjoy their hobby, while preserving the economic
benefits associated with tourism and allowing the fish to complete their life cycle. Whoriskey
recently completed a study of tagged salmon in Russia and found that 10 percent of the fish
his team caught, tagged and released returned to be identified a second and sometimes a third
time. “The females’ eggs were gone so we knew they had spawned successfully. It was proof
that the whole process of catch and release works without altering fish behaviour,” he says.
Canada’s anglers appear to be more conscientious now than they were a decade ago, when
up to 40 percent of returning salmon were harvested. And while those large percentages are
still harvested by other countries today, anglers fishing in eastern Canadian rivers caught
only about 17 percent of the returning salmon in 2003, and released 60 percent of their catch.
THE FEMALE DIFFERENCE
Female salmon develop a body cavity that can hold a certain number of eggs. After a year
in the ocean, they can carry about 600 eggs, but after two years their carrying capacity
rises exponentially, to about 12,000. "Females play an evolutionary game: they put themselves
at risk in the ocean in order to increase the number of eggs they can bring back to the spawning
grounds," Whoriskey says. Unlike Pacific salmon, Atlantic salmon have the advantage of returning
to North American spawning sites year after year, sometimes up to seven times.
How do you tell the difference? Female salmon are larger than males and they don’t develop
a hooked jaw, as males do. Laws vary across the provinces as to whether you can harvest them.
In the Maritimes, you aren’t permitted to harvest salmon over 63 centimetres, as these are
primarily egg-carrying females. In Quebec, a small yearly quota is permitted.
Whoriskey doesn’t consider sport fishing a danger to the wild Atlantic salmon population,
provided that anglers comply with the catch and release system. But he admits that others
are nervous that the quotas will still lead to a decrease and offers a blunt caution: If
it happens, harvest limits will be cut back even more.
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