Sockeye Numbers Good; Coho Lag

Sockeye salmon returns to British Columbia were better than predicted this year, the federal Fisheries Department said Monday.

But there were some record-low coho salmon returns.

Scientist Mike Henderson said the 1996 Fraser River sockeye run was 4.3 million fish, compared with an original forecast of 1.6 million.

He described sockeye returns to the Skeena River as phenomenal, with 7 million returning and 3.7 million fish caught.

But the sockeye return on the central coast was poor, and Henderson said the worst situation was on the south coast where coho salmon returns plummeted.

“In the face of declining production, whatever the source, whether it be marine survival, loss of freshwater habitat and so on, the only remedy is to scale back the fisheries to some extent to allow the stocks to continue to thrive even at more modest levels,” he said.

Fisheries regional director Louis Tousignant said conservation policies caused economic hardship for West Coast fishermen in 1996. But they also resulted in good returns and escapement levels overall, he said.

The total catch value was $100 million, $21 million more than expected, Tousignant said.