Thank you to all of you for your letters and calls to your Members of Parliament and the Prime Minister we now have Judicial Inquiry into how Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is managing the Fraser sockeye.
After months of silence and highly conflicting and confusing information coming from DFO the Prime Minister has taken a very significant step by announcing this Inquiry. The 2009 Fraser sockeye salmon collapse pattern is remarkably specific with some stocks failing by over 90% and others returning at 4 times what was predicted.
When an animal demonstrates a pattern this bold (the fish migrating north disappeared, while the fish moving south flourished), it is possible to decipher the cause. However, DFO has thwarted progress with a torrent of highly contradictory and confusing misinformation.
The purpose of a Judicial Inquiry is to reveal the facts and then make recommendations to government. It is run by a judge and testimony is given under oath. Our sockeye are at the moment of no return. If there had been a Judicial Inquiry into DFO’s management of our North Atlantic cod stocks, certain DFO scientists would have been allowed to speak earlier and we would still have those fish stocks.
I feel cautiously optimistic. Our salmon are dying of conflicted, tangled politics which we now have the opportunity to sort out.
There have been many people behind this, but most important is all of you.
I will keep you posted as I learn more
