Pink salmon opening in BC a smoke screen from Ottawa: fisherman

BRITISH COLUMBIA - The Department of Fisheries and Oceans allowed commercial fishermen onto the Fraser River on Monday to harvest pink salmon - a less valuable cousin of the sockeye - during a heated fishing season in British Columbia.

But fishermen say the move is a feeble attempt to mask the colossal mismanagement of the sockeye fishery, which the federal government closed two weeks ago after citing conservation concerns.

Paul Ryall, a manager with the Fisheries Department, said there are about 16 million pinks returning to the Fraser River, with 25 per cent of the mix being sockeye. "It's managing to stay within our sockeye conservation limits but we're waiting for the proportion of pinks to keep increasing," Ryall said.

He said DFO officials will continue to monitor the pinks fishery to determine if it will continue. "The overriding thing in all this is to stay within our conservation limits on sockeye."

Source: Brandon Sun