Sunday 5 September 2010

With Biggest Salmon Run in nearly a Century, Hope Returns to the Fraser - The Globe and Mail


photo credit Andy Clark & Reuters


Mmmmm...salmon. My favourite fish! So light, so smooth and creamy. So wonderful to have a big pinky-orange chunk of fresh raw salmon with nothing else to taint the flavour. Oh god. The days I eat salmon are the better days of my life.

But all is not well in salmon world, and I fear that I may not be able to enjoy this meal in good conscience mush longer. I have already given up tuna, swordfish and Chilean and Mediterranean sea bass for this reason. Please don't take away my salmon...
There may be hope.

"Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea has been in B.C. this week and said the excitement she’s seen in fishing communities is palpable. “Everybody is abuzz about the great return of the Fraser sockeye,” she said in an interview on Tuesday."

The new estimates put the total number of salmon coming to the Fraser at 25 million. That makes it the best run since 1913!

But that doesn't necessarily mean we're out of the woods yet. Scientists and fishermen alike were expecting this year to be a peak - just not this mush of one. After this year, salmon numbers are expected to fall again.

“We’re thrilled the numbers are so great, but the reality is 2009 was a problematic year,” she said. “We’ll take into account the great numbers this year, but there are still a lot of questions around the long-term sustainability of Fraser River sockeye.”

Full article here (The Globe and Mail)

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