So, it has been a slow spell for Headwaters. I have more coming soon, but thought in the meantime, I would throw this out there in case you missed it:
Fraser River Sockeye Hunt Out To Dry - By Craig Orr And Stan Proboszcz, Vancouver Sun
With all respect to a certain cinematic frog, it's tough being a Fraser River sockeye, judging by masses of evidence and testimony tendered over the past two years at the Cohen Commission Inquiry into the Decline of Fraser River Sockeye. There's little doubt: Sockeye face a tough existence, and unless things change, their future - and ours - will be far less rich. Sockeye are plagued by a lack of food, lax pollution standards, ineffective habitat protection efforts, archaic water laws, harmful hydro impacts, unjustified riverbed mining, a "modernized" Fisheries Act, illegal fishing, subpar catch monitoring, and debilitating climate change. Unlucky Oncorhynchus nerka must also swim a gauntlet of non-selective nets, predators, toxic algae blooms, and pathogen-bearing fish farms - all for an increasingly slim chance to spawn and die.
If these stresses weren't troubling enough, the federal review of Fraser sockeye woes recently reopened to testimony about positive tests for the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) in wild and farmed salmon. Indeed, despite vigorous government assurances to the contrary, compelling evidence suggests this virus has been here for some time. Governments' reaction to the news - and to leaks that they had known of a possible virus for nearly a decade - prompts one to fear that wild salmon ranked disturbingly low on their list of priorities.
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