EDITOR,
Re. "Minister visits Squamish," Chief, Jan. 13.
The Brackendale Winter Eagle Count may well be the canary in the coal mine for B.C.'s wild Pacific salmon.
Federal Minister Keith Ashfield (Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans) and MP John Weston were in town on Wednesday (Jan. 11) and few people knew. We found out because a Norwegian film crew (of all things) came by the BAG to talk to Thor about eagles and salmon before going to look for Minister Ashfield.
You may have noticed that not a lot of eagles have come for the Brackendale Winter Eagle Festival. It is hard to keep the energy happening when the stars of the show don't come. Most of us know by now that the eagles come to eat salmon and if there is no food, they go somewhere else. Unfortunate for our Eagle Festival, but much more frightening for the larger picture. It is not the eagles we need to worry about as much as it is the salmon.
There is plenty of chatter in emails just now about why the chum run failed so totally and why there are so few coho: targeted catch, misguided fisheries policy, foreign fishing, climate change, El Niño, local weather, river temperature and ISA virus, sea lice and pollution from fish farms (mostly owned by Norwegian multinational corporations).
At the meeting I attended (possibly crashed), a group of marvelously dedicated, educated, knowledgeable and polite speakers informed Mr. Ashfield and Mr. Weston of the issues as they experience them in their work as conservationists, volunteers and/or career biologists.
Mr. Ashfield listened and spoke, predictably, in noncommittal political bafflegab. This is what I heard:
There is no ISA virus in B.C. because the fish farms test their fish and say there isn't any. The other tests, the ones from independent labs, the ones on wild salmon, are unreliable;
Don't hold your breath for new funding, or any funding, for continuing all your good work;
The government has no intention of implementing the findings of the Cohen Inquiry.
Salmon are the lifeblood of our ecosystem on the B.C. coast. Eagles, bears, and wolves, insects, fungi, aquatic life and even trees depend on nutrients brought up the rivers by the salmon. All along the coast, communities depend on the food resource and reap the benefits of tourism based on our wilderness and wildlife. We need our government to act now to protect the wild Pacific salmon, not just to decry their loss and carry on business as usual.
The Brackendale Winter Eagle Count may well be the canary in the coal mine. Please tell me somebody is listening.Dorte FroslevBrackendale
