Grizzly Bears Overrun Village Because of Fishery Collapse
11/24/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Grizzly bears overrun village because of fishery collapse
Source: The David Suzuki Foundation
(604)732-4228
bhornick@davidsuzuki.org
Web site: http://www.davidsuzuki.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 24, 1999
VANCOUVER, CANADA -- VANCOUVER - Six starving grizzly bears -
including a mother and two cubs - were recently killed by provincial
conservation officers in the tiny village of Oweekeno where they had
come looking for food, Jim Fulton, executive director of the David
Suzuki Foundation, said today.
Another three adult grizzlies were airlifted out of the community on
BC's central coast where some of the province's most important
sockeye runs have virtually collapsed, said Mr. Fulton and Tom
Gottselig, fisheries administrator for the Oweekeno First Nation.
Villagers have never seen nine bears in the community at one time and
it is the lack of salmon, which constitute up to 70 per cent of their
diet, that has them foraging in the community for food, said Mr.
Gottselig.
"There's been nothing like this before," he said. "There are no fish
and a total absence of predator birds like eagles and ravens."
Oweekeno (also known as Rivers Inlet) is home to some of the
historically most important salmon runs in the province, usually
boasting annual returns of over three million sockeye. This year only
3,500 sockeye returned to spawn, Mr. Gottselig said.
"It's an absolute catastrophe. The people of Oweekeno depend on
salmon and there's nothing in the freezers or canned," he said,
adding that having bears killed in the community has added even more
stress.
The community called the local conservation officer because of the
number of bears and concern over safety, "but we didn't think they'd
kill them," Mr. Gottselig said.
Currently, a mother and two cubs are in the village but no decision
has been made on what to do, he added. Grizzly bears are listed as a
vulnerable species in BC by the Environment Ministry.
- MORE -
"Here is a community devastated by the loss of their fishery, which
is their life blood, and what does the government do? They come in
and kill grizzly bears, which are vital for the health of the
ecosystem, when they could have removed them all alive," Mr. Fulton
said.
The David Suzuki Foundation is funding research in the area by Dr.
Tom Reimchen, a University of Victoria biologist, who is examining
the vital relationship between salmon, bears and the temperate old-
growth forest. One-third of the world's remaining temperate
rainforest is found on this coast, stretching north of Vancouver
Island to the Alaska panhandle.
"The Oweekeno situation is nothing short of criminal," Mr. Fulton
said. "The community has no fish, bears are starving and being
killed, and no one in the provincial Environment Ministry or the
federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has bothered to come and
investigate."
Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal and Environment Minister Joan
Sawicki must act immediately, Mr. Fulton said.
"The history of logging and over-fishing in the area are key elements
in this ecological collapse. We call on these ministers to
immediately direct their staff to develop an emergency restoration
plan for the recovery of the Rivers Inlet salmon stocks."
Dr. Reimchen conducted research in the Oweekeno system in August and
he said the crisis was obvious.
"The streams and rivers in Oweekeno should have had thousands of
salmon when we were there, yet salmon were virtually absent," he
said.
"This is devastating for bears because such a high portion of their
yearly diet comes from salmon. With the collapse of this resource,
the bears are the first link the chain to feel the effects, which
affects their wintering habits. The absence of salmon for adult bears
is severe enough but for cubs born to a female without the reserves,
absence of salmon probably means mortality."
The chinook and chum salmon runs are also in crisis so the Oweekeno
people voluntarily decided not to exercise their aboriginal right to
food fish this year, Mr. Gottselig said.
"But there was a commercial sports fishery out here for 75 days non-
stop and some of these fish were destined for rivers where they were
desperately needed for spawn. The chum salmon are almost entirely
missing," he said.
Normally, 600 to 700 spawned-out salmon a day are counted in the
area, but over the past 25 days only 32 fish have been counted,
including three chum, Mr. Gottselig added.
"We've had no word from DFO and they have no one in the field here
anymore."
Mr. Gottselig alerted Mr. Fulton of this disaster in a letter that
contains this dire warning:
"This is the grim news from Oweekeno and I hope that all the people
can work together and prevent the catastrophe of extinction. Once the
salmon are gone the ancient Oweekeno nation will not be far behind
it."
While the Oweekeno situation is devastating, it is not a unique
situation on the BC coast, Mr. Fulton added.
"Up and down this coast, communities are losing their natural
resources because of unsustainable extraction practices. We need new
methods in fisheries and forestry that will protect ecosystems and
ensure that species and whole communities are not wiped out."
- 30 -
For more information, please contact Jim Fulton, executive director,
David Suzuki Foundation, 604-732-4228; Tom Gottselig, Oweekeno
Fisheries Administrator, 250-949-8625; Dr. Tom Reimchen, 250-721-
7101.
For more information, contact:
Brad Hornick
Communication Systems Coordinator
The David Suzuki Foundation
(604)732-4228
bhornick@davidsuzuki.org
Web site: http://www.davidsuzuki.org