Optimism over an expected bumper season for wild B.C. sockeye salmon has turned to distress The Pacific Salmon Commission's pre-season estimate dropped by nearly half this week.
"It's disturbingly bad,'' said Greg Taylor, senior fisheries adviser with Watershed Watch Salmon Society.
A sockeye salmon is reeled in along the shores of the Fraser River near Chilliwack, B.C., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. Kevin Lemkay, a spokesman for Murray, said the government is following the panel's decision "with great concern'' for both wild salmon and Canadian harvesters. "Fortunately for myself, I'm engaged in other fisheries. I do crab, prawn, herring. But for the mom-and-pop operations that only have gillnet licences and solely rely on that, they're going to be forced to sell their boats, they're going to be forced to sell their gear,'' he said from Cowichan Bay.