Christina Ciesielski, fisheries program manager for the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, said it decided to try using the salmon milt it had been storing for 20 years after having it tested for motility and discovering it was still 80 per cent viable.  

Click the hyperlinks to read the full article from CBC News or to listen to the interview on CBC Radio West with Sarah Penton starting at 31:12 up until 37:16 where Ciesielski discusses how CSTC is working to save endangered salmon.  

For more information or questions on CSTC’s efforts to save endangered salmon please contact the Fisheries Program Manager at (250) 562-6279

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First Nations Fisheries Council-Press Release-Mount Polley

Friday, August 15, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PDF – BC First Nations devastated by recent Mount Polley disaster

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First Nations Health Authority-Mount Polley Mine-Communique

August 12, 2014
PDF- Mount Polley

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Quotes from the livestream press conference

“all results came back meeting the requirements of BC and Canadian drinking water standards.” (MOE rep)

“testing that was done is very re-assuring” (Medical Health Officer for the interior region).

2 – Test results and explanation from MOE today.

• Explanatory memo of water sampling results
• Water Sample Results – Aquatic Life Guidelines_20140807.pdf
• Water Sample Results – Drinking Water Guidelines_20140807.pdf
• MOE Update of Aug 7th

All FNHA updates on Mount Polley to date are available online here:
http://www.fnha.ca/about/news-and-events/news/mount-polley-mine-communiques-and-press-releases

NSTC – Wednesday, July 21, 2913 – The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council through Fisheries Department Manager, Gord Sterritt, made arrangements for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans personnel from Lillooet and Prince George to transfer approximately 200 Early Stuart sockeye that were seized in St’at’imc (Lillooet) and Nlka’pamux (Thompson in the Lytton area) traditional fishing area.

The St’at’imc and Nlka’pamux made the arrangements with the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, in Prince George, to have the Early Stuart sockeye delivered to them for distribution amongst their members. In a St’at’imc Government services press release sent to NSTC by St’at’imc Fisheries Manager Janice Billy, the St’at’imc wrote:

‘The Early Stuart Run continues to be a stock of concern, and we will not fish this run until we are assured it is sustainable. Every fish counts. Historically, the St’at’imc Chiefs maintain a strong stance of conservation in support of the Early Stuart Run. While our responsibilities of conservation are the utmost important aspect for this run, unfortunately this mandate continues to not be respected by some individuals. As a result Department of Fisheries and Oceans charges are being laid and over 200 Early Stuart fish have been seized.’

The NSTC member Bands and their community members have also respected the closure of the Early Stuart sockeye run, for conservation purposes and to allow the First Nations from Prince George and to the northwest to the Stuart and Takla Lake region to be able to catch their food fish.

Williams Lake Indian Band councillor Willie Sellars, Stswecem’ Xgat’tem First Nation’s chief, David Archie and band councillor Allan Adams were on hand with Gord Sterritt at the tribal council office to assist with and to
witness the transfer of fish.

Also on hand to witness the transfer were Yvonne Smith, NSTC Executive Director, and Charlotte Morrow, NSTC Fisheries Coordinator.

For more information contact:
Gord Sterritt at the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council, by phone at (250) 392-7361 or by e-mail G.sterritt@nstq.org.

NSTC – Wednesday, July 21, 2013 – The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council through Fisheries Department Manager, Gord Sterritt, made arrangements for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans personnel from Lillooet and Prince George to transfer approximately 200 Early Stuart sockeye that were seized in St’at’imc (Lillooet) and Nlka’pamux (Thompson in the Lytton area) traditional fishing area.

PDF Version
  
Cohen Commission Report: CSTC Must Be Involved

Dakelh Territory, Prince George, British Columbia. Canada.  Today Justice Bruce Cohen released the much anticipated report from the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River (also known as the Cohen Commission).  Over the last three years the Cohen Commission heard from 179 witnesses, including First Nations from Carrier Sekani territories regarding the cumulative impacts affecting the decline of the Fraser River Sockeye (Dakelh name: Talo).

Tribal Chief Terry Teegee said, “Talo is extremely important for the survival and well-being of Carrier Sekani peoples.  We are the stewards of the headwaters of the Nechako and Fraser basins.  We will be closely examining the 75 recommendations brought forward from the Cohen Commission to ensure that the Crown upholds its responsibility to protect fish and fish habitat for future generations.” He continued, “There is no single cause for the decline in Fraser River Sockeye Salmon, however the CSTC agrees with Commissioner Cohen that the recent federal amendments to the Environmental Assessment, and Fisheries Acts are very troubling.  The Harper government is selling our resources and expects industry to be responsible stewards.  No way. This is unacceptable and counterproductive.  Carrier Sekani First Nations must be part of recovery and management plans.”

“The CSTC will be joined by other First Nations and Canadians voicing our perspectives on ensuring that high risk threats like oil pipelines/tankers, fish farms and over fishing are minimized or stopped.  Just like the mountain pine beetle infestation, a main source of the Fraser Sockeye decline was climate change.  It is the elephant in the room that no one is dealing with.”  Climate scientists predict that the mean annual global temperature will rise between 2-5 degrees Celsius over the next 90 years. 

The CSTC also supports the wild salmon policy and all efforts directed at incorporating the meaningful, government-to-government decision-making of First Nations to ensure that fisheries and other resources are managed properly.  “We depend on the salmon, and the salmon depend on us.  We hold the responsibility to ensure that salmon habitat is protected and has an opportunity to recover”, stated Tribal Chief Teegee.

– 30 –

For further information contact:
Tribal Chief Terry Teegee, RPF: 250-562-6279; Cell 250-640-3256

The Cohen Commission Report is available at: http://www.cohencommission.ca

Dakelh Territory, Prince George, British Columbia. Canada.  Today Justice Bruce Cohen released the much anticipated report from the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River (also known as the Cohen Commission).  Over the last three years the Cohen Commission heard from 179 witnesses, including First Nations from Carrier Sekani territories regarding the cumulative impacts affecting the decline of the Fraser River Sockeye (Dakelh name: Talo).

A grim future lies ahead for the local sturgeon population

The federal government's bid to make sweeping changes to the Fisheries Act has prompted an 11th-hour scramble at the $26.4-mil-lion Cohen Commission, which was created by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009 to study dramatic declines in the West Coast sockeye fishery.

Senior commission counsel Brian Wallace sent a letter to all hearing participants – including governments, industry, first nations, and environ-mentalists – late last week asking them to submit by May 14 their views on how the budget bill affects their previous positions on the state of B.C.'s top fishery.

The letter was in response to the Conservative government's tabling of a 431-page omnibus budget-implementation bill that includes Fisheries Act amendments that would, according to critics, “gut” key provisions to protect fisheries habitat.

Justice Bruce Cohen's commission published a technical report in February 2011 that described the federal legislation's habitat-protection pro-visions, first established in 1976, as “Canada's primary legislative tool” and an “effective backbone” to protect sockeye habitat.

The government's new bill “contains proposed changes to a number of pieces of legislation relevant to the work of this commission,” said Wallace's letter, provided Tuesday to Post-media News.
Wallace, noting that Bill C-38 was tabled as the commission “is nearing completion of its work,” said there are no plans to reopen evidentiary hearings on the effect of the bill. But he offered participants the opportunity to provide “supplementary submissions” no later than May 14.

Craig Orr, chairman of the Pacific Marine Conservation Caucus – made up of conservation and environmental groups such as the David Suzuki Foundation – said Bill C-38 is a “game-changer” that will necessarily affect the commission's work.

“I think this act does change how Cohen must view the ability of the federal government to effectively protect fish habitat in B.C. and across Canada and thus strikes at the heart of what this federal inquiry is trying to sort out,” he said.

The current law prohibits Canadians from engaging in any activity “that results in the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.” The proposed new wording is far narrower and focuses on economic fisheries, banning “serious harm to fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or aboriginal fishery, or to fish that support such a fishery.”

The federal government's bid to make sweeping changes to the Fisheries Act has prompted an 11th-hour scramble at the $26.4-mil-lion Cohen Commission, which was created by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009 to study dramatic declines in the West Coast sockeye fishery.

By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist

After years of conflict over sockeye salmon sales by First Nations in the Alberni Valley, commercial sales will now be legal under an agreement signed this week by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Tseshaht and Hupacasath First Nations.

The deal, based on First Nations receiving 33 per cent of the commercial sockeye catch in Alberni Inlet and the Somass River, is a victory, said Tseshaht fisheries manager Andy Olson.

“We haven’t had a commercial sockeye agreement for 10 years,” Olson said.

“We had one before that, but the problem has been the allocation formula.”

The pilot sales agreement, started in the 1990s, was supposed to be renegotiated every year.

But for the past decade, the DFO has demanded a sliding scale, with the aboriginal commercial fishery receiving a decreasing percentage during good runs and the bulk going to the non-aboriginal commercial fishery.

That was unacceptable, but 33 per cent is a better offer, Olson said.

“Now we have been able to reach an agreement with DFO that allows Somass First Nations to commercially sell sockeye, chinook, coho and chum,” he said.

The deal was approved last week by Tseshaht members in a 49 to nine vote.

Some aboriginal fishermen are likely to sell their catch to commercial fish buyers, but others will put their fish on ice and sell at roadside stalls, Olson said.

The roadside sales, which have continued despite the lack of an agreement with the DFO, have been an annual bone of contention.

Although it is a good sockeye run this year, with a prediction of more than one million fish, prices are low, and the aim will be to get the best price for the product, Olson said.

“We are working on getting a brand so we can market fish on our own,” he said.

That could include commercial ventures such as smoking or canning fish.

Somass First Nations, like many other coastal B.C. bands, claim their economy historically included fish sales and argue they should be allowed to sell salmon as well as catch food, social and ceremonial fish.

Tseshaht and Hupacasath were not part of a Nuu-chah-nulth lawsuit, led by Ahousaht First Nation, which in May saw the B.C. Court of Appeal affirm the right of five First Nations to sell fish in their traditional territories, but it has had an effect, Olson said.

“It forced DFO to come to the table with a more reasonable allocation offer,” he said.

No one from the DFO was available to comment Tuesday.

In the 1990s, the SomassAlberni agreement with First Nations drew accusations of a race-based fishery and protest fisheries by opponents, including thenReform Party MP John Cummins.

jlavoie@timescolonist.com

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