For 40 years, Doug Stewart co-ordinated his movements with spawning salmon on sa国际传媒鈥檚 north coast, climbing up creeks to count the fish as they returned from the ocean.
His job as a creekwalker 鈥� a contract salmon-monitoring gig for Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 鈥� took him places no one would think fish could reach, he said. One November, after wading through a frozen lake with his canoe in tow, he followed a creek up through a frozen meadow and counted coho in 颅slow-flowing pools covered with thin ice. 鈥淚t was something that鈥檒l stick in my head forever. Those are the kinds of things that keep drawing you back.鈥�
When Stewart reluctantly retired in 2016, no one took over for him, leaving an area of about 17,000 square kilometres to the last remaining creekwalker in the region. 鈥淓ven when there was two of us, we still weren鈥檛 doing the job 颅properly,鈥� he said.
Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 has been hiring creekwalkers to count salmon returning to natal streams along the Pacific coast since 1940. These 颅creekwalkers provide essential information about populations, which is used to inform fisheries management decisions, including how many salmon can be caught for commercial or recreational purposes.
However, decades of budget cuts have greatly reduced the number of 颅creekwalkers and the number of streams being monitored, while wild salmon populations have been declining. Critics say the data collected by creekwalkers is needed to make good fisheries management decisions.
鈥淔rom a conservation perspective, we need this information to assess the health of populations,鈥� Michael Price, a salmon researcher at Simon Fraser 颅University, said in an interview.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 accurately make fisheries decisions when we don鈥檛 know how many fish are coming back.鈥�
Creekwalkers reduced from 150 to 2 on sa国际传媒鈥檚 coast since 1949
PacificWild, a conservation organization focused on the Great Bear 颅Rainforest, recently launched a campaign to call attention to the declining number of creekwalkers on the north and central coast and what that means for salmon.
In 1949, there were 150 creekwalkers monitoring the north coast; by the late 1970s there were 40 and now there are just two, according to research by the organization. PacificWild has also found that only 215 of 2,500 spawning streams on the central and north coast are being counted. That鈥檚 about a 70 per cent decrease since the 1980s, when around 1,500 of those streams were 颅monitored.
PacificWild does not have data on how many creekwalkers are monitoring streams on the south coast nor how many streams there are being monitored.
According to research by Price and others, Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 has continually cut funding for monitoring since the 1980s. When Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 announced a wild salmon policy in 2005, which prioritized the conservation of Pacific salmon and acknowledged a need to preserve 颅biological diversity, conservation scientists expected the department would increase monitoring efforts.
鈥淭hat was Objective 1: to identify populations that we need to protect in 颅perpetuity,鈥� Price said. Yet, the decline continued.
In the absence of data collected by creekwalkers, Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 estimates sa国际传媒 salmon populations by counting the fish at just a few sites in larger systems, doing aerial surveys and tagging fish at downstream locations and creating a population model based on how many show up farther inland.
But according to Price, the accuracy of those estimates can be off by as much as 50 per cent and it鈥檚 impossible to know what鈥檚 happening to individual populations without monitoring streams.
Price added that without 鈥渂oots on the ground,鈥� the data lacks critical context.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e just flying over and looking at the spawning reach of a system, and not literally walking up the entire system, you don鈥檛 know if there are blockages in the system, or disease events, or pre-spawn mortality because the water temperatures were high, or big predation years.鈥�
Price said creekwalkers carry irreplaceable knowledge of the spawning sites they visit year after year. This informs a deeper understanding of anomalies and fluctuations in salmon returns, which in turn informs fisheries management.
For example, Stewart said there was an unexpected large early return of pink salmon to the glacial-fed freshwater systems in the region last year. Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 decided to open the commercial fisheries, but because the decision was not informed by creekwalkers鈥� knowledge, it resulted in an error that left many creeks without enough fish to sustain the populations.
鈥淲ithout the patrolmen out there, the department wasn鈥檛 able to realize that this wasn鈥檛 going to be a continuous thing through all the systems,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey actually overfished because they didn鈥檛 realize that the secondary [returns], what we call the fall pinks, weren鈥檛 coming. You鈥檝e got to have people in the field to see so that you can actually make good management decisions.鈥�
Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 declined an interview request and was unable to provide any information.
Price gave credit to Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 for erring on the side of caution by dramatically limiting the commercial and sport fisheries over the past few years, but added that increasing data could only have a positive impact.
鈥淚f we had more information, I would like to believe that we would make more informed decisions,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut right now, we are flying blind.鈥�
Indigenous communities step up to monitor streams
When Stewart retired, the Kitasoo/Xai鈥檟ais First Nation started counting spawning salmon in around 15 of the 150 streams in his former monitoring area. They receive a small amount of funding from Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 and share their data with the department.
Kitasoo/Xai鈥檟ais fisheries director Larry Greba said they鈥檙e trying to cover a handful of streams that are representative of other streams.
鈥淚n the absence of that information, you have no idea what鈥檚 going on with stocks,鈥� he said. 鈥淯nfortunately, in some cases they seem to be going 鈥� I hate to use the word 鈥� extinct. We鈥檝e got a number of systems in the area that have just gone to next to nothing.鈥�
But Greba said he鈥檇 like to see Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan allocate more resources for Indigenous monitoring programs and said her recent mandate letter from the prime minister, which calls for the development of a Pacific salmon strategy, offers a glimmer of hope.
Other coastal nations, including the Heiltsuk and Gitga鈥檃t, have similarly started monitoring streams in the absence of Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 programs. Fraser Los, communications coordinator for the Coastal Stewardship Network, said in an email that efforts are underway to standardize the methods of data collection and make sure they鈥檙e compatible with Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒. Los said Coastal First Nations are working on digitizing data collection as part of a regional monitoring system.
Price agreed that coordinating monitoring methods is key and added that increasing our knowledge of how many fish are out there doesn鈥檛 have to be a huge investment.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not rocket science. It just takes those adventurous individuals that would like to tramp up streams and count fish.鈥�
Collaboration between governments and First Nations is part of the solution
The federal and provincial governments have earmarked more than $140 million for salmon conservation programs through the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, including some monitoring programs.
Fin Donnelly, sa国际传媒 parliamentary secretary for fisheries and aquaculture, said the province is committed to working with the federal government and First Nations.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a recognition that we have to do things differently,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have to be innovative, we have to work together and collaborate, and we need action now.鈥�
He said the province has started to fund Indigenous guardian programs to help address the problem, citing a $7.3 million investment in the Broughton archipelago, where Minister Jordan recently decided to phase out open-net pen salmon farms by 2022. He said the funding includes support for monitoring programs.
Biologist Alexandra Morton suggested creating a new senior position within Fisheries and Oceans sa国际传媒 to co-ordinate this collaboration. 鈥淲e need a director of wild salmon.鈥�
While many populations are on the brink of extinction, Morton said salmon can survive given the chance. 鈥淭he ocean and the rivers can still make fish. People should not give up.鈥�
Stewart saw what was at stake last summer while anchored with his family in a 鈥済in-clear鈥� river where he used to see around 60,000 chum and 60,000 pink salmon returning every year. He estimated only about 500 chum returned last year.
鈥淲e鈥檙e watching this sow grizzly with two cubs, and there鈥檚 no pinks available yet so she鈥檚 hunting chums. And, I mean, she鈥檚 stalking them.鈥�
He chuckled and said she was pretty good at it, but added there were probably another dozen grizzlies in the area all trying to catch the fish.
鈥淎ll of a sudden you don鈥檛 have enough chum in that system to supply the bears and to supply the future stock of chums,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he bears are getting what they can get and you鈥檙e hoping like hell [the fish] at least got a few eggs into the gravel before they became bear protein.鈥�
