Confusion about Fraser sockeye demise
Jeff Grout (or the reporter) needs to clarify why they reject the suggestion that sea lice infestation are responsible for this summer’s poor returns!
http://www.straight.com/article-249317/hotter-water-linked-poor-sockeye-returns
UBC’s Scott Hinch has studied how ocean and river temperatures affect salmon.
Hotter water linked to poor sockeye returns
A UBC fisheries expert’s warning from the 1990s now sounds prophetic with this summer’s poor returns of Fraser River sockeye. UBC professor Scott Hinch predicted 15 years ago that warming sea-surface temperatures due to climate change would result in smaller and less abundant sockeye.
Some 3.3 million Fraser sockeye reached their spawning grounds in 2005. According to the Pacific Salmon Commission, surveys in the Quesnel and Chilko tributaries indicated that about 130 million sockeye smolts moved out to the sea in 2007 for their two-year ocean migration.
What happened to these juveniles?
Jeff Grout, FOC’s salmon resource manager, said he suspects that the fish didn’t survive at expected rates. He rejected any suggestion that fish farms are responsible for poor returns.
