CP32-93-2012-3-eng.pdf

Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River • Volume 3
Fisheries-monitoring and catch-reporting programs
differ among the commercial, recreational,
and Aboriginal sectors and among the gear types
and areas in each fishery. Catch estimates may
rely on fishers reporting their own catch numbers
(fisher dependent), on information collected by
monitors independent of the fishers (fisher independent),
or on a combination of the two. Where
catch reporting is fisher dependent, there is the
potential for inaccurate reporting of catch, whether
inadvertent or intentional. Independent verification
of catch numbers and fishing effort may be used to
validate the accuracy of fisher-dependent numbers.
In the commercial fishery, catch estimation
is primarily fisher dependent, with varying levels
of independent catch validation in some fisheries.
DFO requires commercial fishers to complete
phone-in reports to DFO, typically by the following
morning and no more than 24 hours after fishing.
All commercial licence holders must record their
catch in a logbook that is returned to DFO at the
end of the fishing season. However, DFO also
conducts or contracts some fisher-independent
on-the-water patrols. Some commercial fisheries
are also subject to dockside monitoring, in which
a percentage of returning boats have their catch
numbers validated by an independent monitor.
In the recreational fishery, catch estimation is
primarily by a creel survey, which includes rod counts
(estimating the number of people fishing on the river
at a given time) and an access survey, in which DFO
staff interview recreational fishers as they are leaving
their fishing locations and obtain information about
how long they were fishing, their target species, and
how many fish they caught and released or kept.
In the Aboriginal FSC fishery, catch reporting
varies, depending on the area and the method of
fishing, and includes a census program, an aerial
roving access survey, and hail programs complemented
by DFO or Aboriginal fishery officer patrols
and final hail counts at the close of the fishery.
Some First Nations have a monitoring program
where all FSC fish are counted and reported to DFO
weekly. Aboriginal economic opportunity fisheries
in the Lower Fraser River are monitored using a
mandatory landing program, in which 100 percent
of fish harvested are counted by a dockside monitor.
The mandatory landing programs are run by First
Nations fisheries organizations funded through
agreement with DFO.
Several witnesses were asked for their understanding
of the effectiveness of fisheries monitoring
and catch-reporting programs and the accuracy
of the catch estimates they produce. Dr. Robert
Houtman, catch-monitoring biologist, DFO, told me
that his “sense” and the “Department’s sense” is that
commercial catch estimates for sockeye are “quite
a good estimate.” 119 When asked to explain what
“quite good” meant, he said that it is “difficult to put
a number on” it, but he suspects that 95 percent of
the commercial catch is accounted for. 120 Matthew
Parslow, acting management biologist, DFO, who
works with Lower Fraser First Nations, said he thinks
that DFO has a “good program” in place that achieves
a “fairly good estimate of the catch” in the Aboriginal
set net fishery and “quite good” estimates for the
Aboriginal drift net fishery. 121 He later stated that
probably 90 percent of the catch, if not more, was
accounted for. 122 Lester Jantz, area chief, Resource
Management, BC Interior, DFO, told me that the
major Aboriginal fisheries in that area are monitored
with programs that provide a “fairly reliable catch
estimate under the current funding levels.” 123
The authors of Technical Report 7, Fisheries
Management, also provided a qualitative assessment
of the accuracy, precision, and reliability of
catch estimates in the commercial, recreational, and
Aboriginal fisheries. They report that the accuracy of
Aboriginal FSC and economic opportunity fishery
catch estimates are “good,” whereas the accuracy of
the commercial and recreational fishery catch estimates
are “fair.” The authors consider the reliability of
these estimates to range from “medium” to “good.” 124
In contrast, Randy Nelson, regional director
of DFO’s Conservation and Protection Branch,
testified that he believes there are large gaps in the
accuracy of catch estimates in all fisheries. He told
me that, over the years when his officers provided
evidence of illegal harvest to resource managers,
they sometimes did not know what to do with it. 125
Mr. Parslow confirmed that DFO does not have any
system in place to estimate illegal or unauthorized
catch, and that the catch information obtained from
the Conservation and Protection Branch is not used
in the management of the fishery. 126
Based on the evidence, I am satisfied that accurate
catch estimates are an essential component
of DFO’s management of the Fraser River sockeye
fishery. I accept the testimony of Colin Masson, element
lead, Pacific Integrated Commercial Fisheries
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