Question Period Note: Wild Atlantic Salmon

• Conservation of wild Atlantic salmon is a priority for our government.
• We are investing in science and engaging with provinces, Indigenous communities, recreational fishers, and other stakeholders to support initiatives that will promote the recovery of Atlantic salmon stocks.
• We are committed to moving ahead with the Wild Atlantic Salmon Conservation: Implementation Plan 2019 to 2021, which we developed in partnership with stakeholders and sets out a course for protecting this iconic species.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada will continue to take a leadership role in both global and domestic actions to reverse the trend of declining stocks of this iconic species.

If Pressed about the the Wild Atlantic Salmon Conservation: Implementation Plan 2019 to 2021
• We will undertake a review of our progress made to date, as we actively continue to advance the Plan’s action items, many of which are identified as ongoing and will go beyond 2021.

• Wild Atlantic salmon is an anadromous species that spends various parts of its life cycle in marine and fresh waters, and can be found in approximately 1,000 rivers in Canada. Wild Atlantic salmon is a cold water species and is vulnerable to warming waters in Atlantic Canada caused by climate change.
• Beginning in 1984, commercial harvest moratoriums were put in place due to low abundance of certain wild Atlantic salmon stocks. A commercial moratorium across all of Eastern Canada has been in place since 2000. Currently, wild Atlantic salmon are harvested in limited Indigenous food, social and ceremonial (FSC) fisheries, and inland recreational fisheries are supported in some areas where healthier populations exist.
• On June 25, 2020, the Atlantic Salmon Federation released its State of the State of Wild Atlantic Salmon Report, which indicates returns to North America in 2019 were among the lowest in a 49-year data series, and called for more inter-governmental coordination and collaboration with stakeholders.
• On May 25, 2020, DFO approved a permit request from the Miramichi Salmon Association (MSA) to collect Atlantic salmon smolts.
• Canada is a member of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), which sets and allocates the harvestable Atlantic salmon surplus among countries in North America and Europe (i.e. Greenland). Domestically, DFO shares the responsibility for their management in freshwater with the Provinces, and the management approach differs depending on the respective federal-provincial arrangement.
• In June 2016, DFO released its Forward Plan for Atlantic Salmon, in response to the report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Atlantic Salmon; and, announced the revised Wild Atlantic Salmon Conservation Policy and Implementation Plan, in March 2017 and May 2019, respectively. The Implementation Plan outlines the actions DFO and partners will take to help restore and maintain healthy wild Atlantic salmon populations.
• In 2016, the Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture was announced to improve the coordination of salmon research, such as at-sea-survival. Budget 2016 also invested $197.1M over five years and $40M per year on an ongoing basis in oceans and freshwater science to engage with partners, including to better understand Atlantic salmon survival at sea and increase in-river monitoring of salmon returns in selected rivers.
• Since 2016 DFO has provided seed funding sourced from the overall DFO Partnership Fund to leverage other support for more than 15 research projects - DFO contributed over $2 million with studies totaling about $6 million of effort.
• In 2020, the Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture funded a visionary research project developed collaboratively by science experts to address a critical research gap related to causes of poor marine survival of wild Atlantic salmon. Options for affordable and realizable mitigation actions aiming to improve marine survival are extremely limited, therefore this research effort focuses on the impacts of conditions in freshwater on smolts where mitigation actions can be more easily taken.
• In 2003, the inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic Salmon designable unit (DU), was listed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA). Nine additional DUs of Atlantic salmon across Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have been assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as at-risk (four as Endangered, one as Threatened, and four as Special Concern) and are under consideration for listing under SARA.

Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST)
• CAST, a multi-stakeholder group, was created in 2015 to address the declines in salmon populations in the Miramichi River watershed. In New Brunswick, DFO invested $1.5 million for several specific CAST projects over four years as well as contributing to the efforts of its biologists and experts.
• One of several projects being undertaken by CAST is the proposed Smolt-to-Adult Supplementation (SAS) technique. SAS involves collecting wild smolts from rivers, rearing them in hatcheries to adults, and then releasing them back into the river of origin, thereby by-passing the marine phase of their life cycle.
• DFO has held two peer-review science meetings to assess the CAST proposal and concluded that the release of SAS fish into the natural river poses several risks to the long-term integrity, survival and recovery of wild Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi River.
• Mi'gmawe'l Tplu'taqnn Incorporated (MTI), which represents the nine Mi’gmaq Nations in New Brunswick, informed DFO of their strong opposition to the planned release of SAS fish by CAST and expressed concerns about the impacts of the SAS releases to the Mi’gmaq Aboriginal and treaty rights to the FSC fishery and food security.
• DFO’s position to not issue a permit for CAST to release hatchery-raised SAS adult Atlantic salmon was relayed to CAST and MTI in October 2018 and remains unchanged.

Striped Bass
• We are committed to ensuring fisheries, including Striped Bass, are sustainable for future generations and that management decisions are informed by science.
• Although Striped Bass are predators of Atlantic salmon smolts, our research shows that there may be other more important factors contributing to the current declining trend experienced by wild Atlantic salmon populations in Canada and other countries.

Smallmouth Bass
• DFO is very concerned about the presence of invasive and alien Smallmouth Bass in the Miramichi system.
• The Department is currently reviewing a request submitted by non-governmental organizations to authorize the use of pesticide to eradicate Smallmouth Bass in Miramichi Lake and part of the river. The Department is also working with other federal and provincial government partners to evaluate this request.
• In the meantime, DFO and its partners will continue ongoing containment, control and monitoring activities for Smallmouth Bass in the Miramichi River watershed.

Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland and Labrador
• It is concerning that the declining population trends observed in the Gulf are also being observed in southern Newfoundland and Labrador.
• There are no quick solutions. We need to continue with measures such as catch and release, working with anglers, provincial governments, Indigenous groups and stakeholders to implement the precautionary approach, and invest in science to understand the causes of the declines.
• Our research shows that there may be other more important factors contributing to the current declining trend experienced by wild Atlantic salmon populations in Canada and other countries.