Countries Fail Salmon Resource
Commentary by Bill Taylor - in Telegraph-Journal

June 22, 2009

 The June meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) in Molde, Norway confirmed that NASCO has little influence on its member countries to attain the conservation goals of its agreements. Of 18 NASCO countries, Ireland is the only one that fully subscribes to best practices in fisheries management. NASCO can set regulatory measures for distant-water salmon fisheries at Greenland only when member countries are in unanimous agreement. Unfortunately, NASCO has no teeth when it comes to getting individual parties, such as Canada, to commit to precautionary management measures.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation and 25 other non-government organizations attending the NASCO meetings were most disappointed that NASCO refused to identify best practices in management of Atlantic salmon fisheries for fear of putting "too much pressure" on member countries to raise the conservation bar.

NASCO did, however, reach another three-year agreement to restrict Greenland's commercial salmon harvest to zero, complementing a private agreement (in effect 2002 to 2013) between the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Iceland-based North Atlantic Salmon Fund and Greenland salmon fishermen. This agreement stipulates that Greenland fishermen must accept a zero commercial quota at NASCO to qualify for private sector funding to involve them in economic activities other than commercial Atlantic salmon fishing. The greatest proportion of salmon harvested at Greenland are North American, so these agreements are extremely important to the health of large salmon populations returning to the Restigouche and Miramichi of New Brunswick, the Margaree of Nova Scotia, the Eagle of Labrador, the Humber of Newfoundland, the Morrell of P.E.I., and the Moisie and Grande Cascapedia of Quebec, to name very few.

Saving salmon from Greenland nets is just the first step. Atlantic salmon returning to Canada then run the risk of being killed in gill nets off Labrador and in river fisheries throughout eastern Canada. Despite strong recommendations from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to the contrary, Canada allows fisheries to target salmon from river populations that are not meeting spawning minimums and salmon for which there is no information as to whether there are enough of them for a sustainable run or not. This disregards the precautionary approach agreed to in theory by all NASCO member countries. It does not set a good example nor is it fair to Greenland, whose representatives committed to suspending their commercial salmon fishery and limiting their take to a small subsistence harvest.

In 2008, Canada indiscriminately killed 13,800 wild salmon off Labrador originating from various, unidentified river populations, and an additional 50,000 in rivers, some of which are not meeting minimum conservation targets. Many of the salmon harvested in these fisheries, especially the gill net fisheries, were the large spawners so important to seeding the rivers.

The review of how countries are living up to their NASCO agreements originated from a non-governmental organization call in 2005 for more transparency and accountability in home water fisheries. In 2006, NASCO embarked on an initiative to review plans of each member country to gauge how well agreements and guidelines on fisheries management, habitat protection and restoration, and protection of wild salmon from the impacts of salmon aquaculture were being implemented.

It is hard to accept that an international conservation organization would not aspire to be the best that it could be. Wild Atlantic salmon populations throughout the North Atlantic are in trouble and NASCO should be providing leadership and taking aggressive conservation action. The approach adopted on fisheries management does not assure non-governmental organizations that salmon conservation is a priority for NASCO.

Review groups have yet to recommend best practices for the habitat and aquaculture agreements, but the fisheries management experience does not bode well for true protection of wild Atlantic salmon under these agreements either.

Time, and the outcomes of NASCO's next annual meeting in Canada in June 2010, will tell the final tale.

Bill Taylor is the President and CEO of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, headquartered near St. Andrews, N.B.