Canada Bear Killings Raise Environmental Alarm
11/25/99
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Title: Canada bear killings raise environmental alarm
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 25, 1999
Canadian grizzly bears are starving because salmon stocks are so low.
Canadian environmentalists raised the alarm Wednesday about the
killing of nine grizzly bears that were forced to forage for food in a
Pacific Coast village because there were no salmon in the rivers for
them to eat.
Salmon are the bears' primary food source, but Canada's stocks of
sockeye, coho and other salmon species have dwindled in recent
years due to overfishing, environmental changes and the
destruction of their river breeding grounds.
A mother grizzly and her two cubs, were shot Wednesday after they
attempted to break into several houses in Oweekeno, a isolated
coastal Indian village about 240 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of
Vancouver, in search of food, a community official said.
"They tried to get into three houses and caused quite a panic and
whatnot...They're looking for food. They're starving up here," said Tom
Gottselig, fisheries administrator for the Oweekeno First Nation.
Wildlife officers killed six hungry bears, including two cubs, and
removed three other grizzlies from the village late last month, but
villagers had hoped to avoid shooting any other bears, tribal and
provincial officials said.
The bears depend on salmon for up to 70 percent of their diet, but the
area's recent sockeye salmon run saw only 3,500 fish return from the
ocean this year compared with returns of more than three million
fish in past years, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, an
environmental watchdog group.
Canada's Pacific salmon stocks have dwindled in recent years due to
overfishing, environmental changes and the destruction of their river
breeding grounds. Grizzly bears are listed as a vulnerable species in British
Columbia, and the environmental group charged the animals had become
the victims of the government's failure to do more to protect the
salmon.
Wildlife officials acknowledged there was "probably a linkage"
between the bears' activities and the low salmon run, but said they
had no choice but to shoot the animals because they were posing a
threat to humans.
"The bears were causing a major problem in the village," said Herb
Langin, a regional director for the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
Gottselig said the Indian tribe has also noticed the disappearance of
predatory birds such as eagles and ravens, which also prey on salmon
for food.
"All of our lousy, crappy (environmental) practices of the
past are coming back to haunt us now," Gottselig said. "We may just
have pushed this system in Oweekeno to the edge."
Gottselig said the village hopes its problems with the grizzlies are
over. It was watching a hungry but smaller black bear that was hiding
Wednesday under a porch, but did not expect to have to kill it, he said.