Federal committee hears Yukon River salmon are imperiled. Now, it's calling on governments to act

Don't look at Yukon River salmon as just statistics, but as animals that are part of a vast — and complex — ecosystem.

That's the throughline of a new report tabled in the House of Commons by a federal fisheries committee that looked at the sustainability of the population. The report includes 37 recommendations, most aimed at Ottawa.

The recommendations touch on climate change, the trawling and placer mining industries, teeming hatchery salmon in the North Pacific, and how it's perhaps time for a new approach to managing chinook and chum salmon that have for years been in a steady state of decline.

The standing committee on fisheries and oceans — which is made up of MPs like Yukon's Brendan Hanley, who originally pushed the committee to examine the issue — heard testimony this year from witnesses, including chiefs, biologists and fish harvesters. 

"I think there was almost universal agreement that this is an ecosystem in crisis," Hanley told CBC News. "[And] how important it is to look at this as an ecosystem, not just as a question of numbers."

The recommendation where this sentiment is perhaps most evident is the one that suggests renegotiating the Yukon River Salmon Agreement. In place since 2001, the agreement, which is part of the Pacific Salmon Treaty between Canada and the U.S., focuses on the number of fish passing the border between Alaska and the Yukon. The report suggests that agreement is prescriptive, and isn't enough to help species in crisis. 

The report instead recommends "developing a comprehensive binational agreement with a goal of restoring and rebuilding Yukon River salmon and its supporting ecosystem." 

While counting the number of fish has a place, that work needs to be expanded to include other metrics like size, sex and weight, all of which affect spawning success, the report states.

Stephanie Peacock, senior analyst with the Pacific Salmon Foundation who presented during the hearings, said salmon aren't a homogenous group. 

Yukon-origin chinook salmon are diverse, with 12 genetically and ecologically distinct groups in the drainage, Peacock said. For decades, though, she said that diversity has been eroded.

Peacock said that erosion looks like younger and smaller fish swimming back into the Yukon, both of which affects their resiliency to pressures, of which there are many.

"I don't think we're the only group that's calling for quality of escapement — size and age are two components of that, but there's also the genetic diversity within those fish."

What about the ocean?

The report says you can't look at habitat in the Yukon River alone. You need to also look at the ocean, where understanding the lives of the salmon bound for the river  — and the perils they face  — is a work in progress.

Take "sea ranching," where countries like Russia, Japan and the U.S. release "billions" of hatchery pink and chum salmon into the North Pacific. 

"These hatchery salmon compete with wild salmon for food which can lead to wild salmon having insufficient energy reserves to migrate to spawning grounds," the report states.

Accordingly, the committee recommends an international study into the issue.

The committee also wants more information from the U.S. government on how many salmon the offshore commercial pollock fishery is inadvertently catching. The report states on this topic there was conflicting testimony.

For instance, some witnesses cited bycatch of salmon among the top reasons behind the population decline. 

But Steve Gotch, senior director with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the Yukon, said the problem is negligible, with upward of 750 chinook caught as bycatch — or 3 per cent of total abundance.

Peacock told CBC News the bycatch of salmon has historically posed problems. 

"And it can easily become an issue again if we don't continue to monitor and be careful around this one," she said.

To better understand the scale of the problem, the committee recommends that Ottawa launch — or support — an independent review of the issue.

Yukon government also has work to do

Some of the committee's recommendations are for the Yukon government to take up, and they mainly deal with how development like placer mining could be harming salmon habitat. It says that's not understood well enough to rule out as an issue.

Earlier this year, the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee, a non-government advisory body, accused the territory of absolving itself of responsibility for salmon and deflecting to Ottawa, and said the territory has taken little action to protect salmon through things like more stringent mining regulations. 

The former chair of the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee told CBC News that while the federal government oversees habitat in riparian zones — which can include streams, rivers, and wetlands — it's the Yukon government that has jurisdiction over territorial land, including what's upslope from where the fish spawn.

The committee recommends the Yukon and federal governments ensure that the monitoring of impacts of placer mining on salmon spawning grounds are, in fact, compliant with the law. It also calls on the governments to settle jurisdictional disputes involving salmon.

The committee's report now lies with the federal government, which has about four months to issue a response.

Hanley said he'll push for implementation of each recommendation.

"This is a national issue, a North American issue, and I think that's really important that, you know, little Yukon has a big story to tell when it comes to salmon."