{"id":124881,"date":"2025-09-06T19:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T19:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/124881\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T19:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T19:06:19","slug":"concerns-raised-over-alleged-cuts-to-north-coast-salmon-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/124881\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns raised over alleged cuts to North Coast salmon monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Columbia conservation groups are sounding the alarm about a cut to a government program they say poses a serious threat to fish stocks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The program involves crucial salmon monitoring at the peak of spawning season.<\/p>\n

Aaron Hill with Watershed Watch Salmon Society said the deployment of a small group of professionals to see first hand how fish are doing in remote areas is critical to allow for fisheries to safely open.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:33
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFirst Nation raises red flag one year after Chilcotin River slide\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201c(To) know that we have enough abundance, to do that we have to know how many fish are in our rivers and streams,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Hill said in most years that information has been gathered by contractors hired by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

This summer, he said, there appeared to be a disruption on two of B.C.\u2019s most important salmon rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201d What happened is this year DFO for some reason didn\u2019t get it together to get proper contracts for these folks at the beginning of the season,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

The Rivers in question are the Nass and Skeena rivers on the North Coast.<\/p>\n

After the Fraser River, more salmon spawn in these river systems than anywhere else in the province, and they support valuable commercial fishing operations so the monitoring is particularly important right now.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:30
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. sockeye salmon surge smashes pre-season predictions\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tKen Dryden, Canadiens great, author, and politician, dies of cancer\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney unveils \u2018Buy Canadian\u2019 plan and canola tariff help amid trade war\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ve been dead in the water, and our streams have been unmonitored for salmon spawners at the height of the spawning season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Global News reached out to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, another component of the salmon monitoring system was underway, a test fishery on the Fraser River that helped confirm a surprise surge in sockeye returns.<\/p>\n

If officials are flying comparatively blind up north, as Hill believes, it shouldn\u2019t be for lack of money. The DFO\u2019s highly touted Pacific Salmon Strategy committed more than $600 million for enhancement work through next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy that they\u2019ve spent all that money, at the end, the most basic function, the one job that they really need to do the most \u2014 they\u2019re not getting done,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Science and Tech
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Columbia conservation groups are sounding the alarm about a cut to a government program they say poses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66,58258],"class_list":{"0":"post-124881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wild-salmon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}