Canadian Fisheries and Ocean Service (DFO) officials denied that the federal government hid scientific findings about a special species of rainbow trout in British Columbia. It seeks to justify the continuation of commercial fishing that endangers species.
Part of the allegation was B.C. The federal government published a peer-reviewed scientific study that concluded that fishing should be restricted to save Thompson and Chilcotin River steelheads from extinction.
This species of salmonid migrates to the sea for most of its life, but hatches and spawns in two rivers.
BC Zoologists and Conservancy. For years it has warned of its dangerous condition. BC's Ministry of Forestry's Annual Update on Species last month warns that numbers are now at historic lows. , preliminary estimates put 104 steelheads spawning in the Thompson River and 19 in the Chilcotin River this year.
Speaking on CBC's Daybreak Kamloops on Friday, DFO's Vancouver-based Pacific director Andrew Thomson said the species is not yet open to the public. and the Scientific Advisory Report was compiled by DFO officials without the knowledge of the scientists. We're working very hard," Thomson said.
Assessing recoverability
Zeman noted that the main threats to Steelhead are the Johnstone Strait and Salish Sea off the south coast of British Columbia, and the Lower Fraser River. , and therefore the DFO should prohibit these practices by designating them as endangered species under the federal Species at Risk Act.
In January 2018, Canada's Commission on the Status of Endangered Wildlife Species (COSEWIC), an independent federal advisory group, called for the Fraser Steelhead to be listed as endangered.
This prompted the Canadian Scientific Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) to conduct peer-reviewed recovery potential assessments of species by scientists. ,Scientific Advisory Reports are based on the same year's assessment and are referenced by the DFO in its policymaking.
Thomson said the ratings can be found on his DFO website. But he said Zeman said the document was actually a scientific advisory report and no actual assessment was made public.
DFO Interference claims in report
DFO, CSAS and B.C. Government accessed via Freedom of Information Request — This was seen on CBC News — Zeman says that federal agencies falsified scientific advisory reports and made their policy recommendations, preventing the public from making peer-reviewed evaluations very different from evaluations.
In an email dated December 2018, DFO scientist Scott Decker complained that the B.C. rice field.
While the assessment states that reducing salmon fishing frequency is the only way to save steelheads from extinction, the final draft of the report states that "acceptable harm is Current levels should not be allowed to exceed — the wording, Zeman interprets, to mean that there is no urgency to list steelheads under the Endangered Species Act. says it can.
Zeman said this led to Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson's July 2019 decision to ban recreational fishing in the Thompson and Chilcotin rivers. but a seed under the law.
Record low thread <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/endangered?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#endangered</a> Internal Fraser <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/steelhead?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#steelhead</a>. The purpose of this thread is to destroy these fish At the same time, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's consistent practice of redacting/hiding science.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BCpoli</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CDNpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CDNpoli</a><br>1/n
—@JZThinAirDated October 2018 In an email to , CSAS chairman Sean MacConnachie said the DFO's Office of the Deputy Undersecretary repeatedly edited the language of the scientific advisory report without his knowledge.
Two months later, in an email to the B.C.
"Genuine concerns about transparency." He said he denied the request. Access documentation.
"We know his DFO can do good science, but we also know that DFO science is not open to the public," he said of his CBC. Daybreak South
. “There is a real concern about transparency.”
Eric Taylor, a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), who has been studying steelhead populations statewide for 30 years, said in 2014 From 2018 until 2018 he has been the chairman of COSEWIC.
"Technically, this is really a scientific scam," said Taylor. "If the reporting is not completely clean, completely honest, and authoritative, the whole process becomes less credible." He argues that there are conflicting mandates to conserve populations, and that Environment Canada should be given conservation mandates instead.
