The commercial pink salmon fishery is so important to the B.C. federal government it’s willing to wipe out an entire species to keep harmful gillnets in the water.
In emails obtained by the BC Wildlife Federation, British Columbia government staff and scientists say Fisheries and Oceans Canada is burying science and misrepresenting a crisis situation to the public, risking the extinction of Thompson-Chilcotin steelhead trout.
In the fall of 2017, only an estimated 150 Thompson fish returned alongside just 77 to the Chilcotin down from thousands just a decade and a half ago.
The email chain shows the DFO changed the wording of a public scientific document that is based on peer-reviewed science.
The wording used by the federal ministry says removing gill nets will not significantly benefit steelhead recovery.
However, B.C. scientists concluded that gillnetting on the Fraser during the return of steelhead is killing too many fish in a joint report with the DFO just last year.
LINK (via: News 1130)
