The Osprey: Skeena River Steelhead

 

  • Skeena River: It’s All About Context, by Bruce Hill, pp 1 & 4-7, Issue No. 70, September 2011. Veteran conservationist Hill tells of the great advances in steelhead conservation over past decades as conservationists have united to reduce commercial fishery harvest of steelhead. Today, the sport fishing community is more divided while the First Nations have risen to a leadership role in protecting the watershed from new threats of energy and mineral extraction.

  • Editor’s Message: We All Care About BC Steelhead, by Jim Yuskavitch, pg 2, Issue No. 70, September 2011. American anglers are sobered by the thought that our venerated rivers north of the border are under threat from overharvest and development.

  • Chair’s Corner: British Columbia, A Wild Steelhead Stronghold Under Seige, by Will Atlas, pg 3, Issue No. 70, September 2011. This BC issue of the Osprey focuses on the threats to BC’s rich river ecosystems: open containment salmon farming and energy development.

  • Power vs Fish: The latest battle for BC’s rivers and salmon, by Craig Orr, pp 8-10, Issue No. 70, September 2011. The BC provincial government has recently embarked on encouraging “clean” electricity development but unfortunately it often comes as new “Run of the River” projects that threaten the ecology of health salmon streams. Opposition is paramount to stop this attempted gold rush on salmon streams.

  • Thompson River Tanked, by Greg Gordon, pp 11-14, Issue No. 70, September 2011. As steelhead returns to the Thompson remain at dangerously low levels, a new proposal has been put forward for selective tangle nets for Chum salmon that would reduce steelhead by-catch. Little progress has been made on a bait ban and the MSC certification for salmon fisheries guilty of by-catch remains highly questionable. Keywords: Tsawwassen, Spius Creek

  • Skeena, Dean, Thompsen and Fraser still devastated by commercial by-catch, by Keith Douglas, Rob Stewart, and Brian Braidwood, pp 15-16, Issue No. 70, September 2011. DFO and commercial salmon fishermen continue to resist moves towards selective fisheries that would reduce steelhead by catch in spite of near extinction of interior Fraser stocks. Furthermore, Dean steelhead recently suffered from an unusual late season commercial chum opening. Keywords: wild salmon policy, marine stewardship council.

  • The Keogh River: 35 years of research and counting, by Don McCubbing, pp 17-19, Issue No. 70, September 2011. McCubbing shares research from what is one of the best studied rivers in the Pacific Northwest. Research has documented decreased marine survival for steelhead since the early 1990s, positive responses to marine derived nutrient additions, and effective habitat restoration. Keywords: Bruce Ward, Slaney, Habitat Conservation Trust Fund

 
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