Question Period Note: Mark Selective Fisheries and Mass Marking

What are the Department’s plans to implement mass marking and mark selective fisheries?

• Like all fish management decisions, it is important that we take decisions that lead to healthy and abundant salmon runs in the future and support Indigenous, commercial and recreational fisheries.
• The potential use of mass marking and mark-selective fishing as management tools will be further explored through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (the removal of the adipose fin before released from the hatchery).
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is considering additional pilot projects to test implementation of mass marking and mark selective fisheries in the coming season.

Mass Marking/Mark Selective Fisheries:
• Conservation is our first priority in management of the salmon fishery (this includes all stocks potentially impacted by a fishery), followed by First Nations food, social and ceremonial fisheries. It is important that we make decisions that will ultimately lead to improved salmon populations, so that we have healthy and abundant salmon runs in the future that will support Indigenous, commercial and recreational fisheries.
• Many hatchery fish have been marked by the removal of the adipose fin before released from the hatchery. U.S. and Canadian hatchery marked Chinook are indistinguishable and in many British Columbia fishing areas there are much larger numbers of U.S. hatchery marked Chinook given mass marking programs in U.S. hatchery facilities. Some hatchery marked Chinook also contain coded-wire tags (CWT) that are extracted from Chinook heads when they are turned in from the fishery or collected on spawning grounds to provide stock assessment information used to manage the fishery. Fishery opportunities where hatchery origin Chinook are retained and wild Chinook are released are known as mark selective fisheries (MSF).
• The Department has not implemented widespread MSF in 2022 due to several concerns, but some local opportunities were considered where Fraser River Chinook stocks of concern could be avoided.
• MSF are expected to increase fishing effort and increase release mortalities (approximately 20 per cent of released Chinook die due to handling stress, hooking injuries or trauma related to capture) for unmarked, wild Chinook. As a result, release mortalities are a key consideration when planning fisheries where wild stocks of conservation concern (e.g. endangered Fraser Chinook) may be encountered.
• In an MSF, the proportion of marked fish should be high enough to limit occurrences of release mortality in unmarked fish. As a result, an MSF will not be suitable when and where proportions of marked fish are low. The department has recreational catch data, including encounters of marked and unmarked Chinook rates by month and statistical area, can inform when MSFs are appropriate.
• The Department has developed a discussion paper on the benefits and challenges to consider in implementing mark-selective fisheries and/or mass-marking of hatchery Chinook. DFO is seeking feedback from First Nations and stakeholders on the discussion paper both in online engagement sessions and written feedback submissions, to help inform further technical analysis and decision considerations for implementation of MM/MSF in 2023 and beyond.
• There are a number of issues to consider, including:
o Canada currently marks (i.e., by removing the adipose fin) hatchery Chinook that carry Coded Wire Tags to support stock assessments for Chinook indicator populations. Mass-marking of all hatchery fish would require Canada to significantly adapt hatchery, fishery monitoring and stock assessment programs to maintain information on wild Chinook and support Pacific Salmon Treaty obligations.
o Cost: Marking significant numbers of hatchery-origin Chinook would incur substantial costs and, in some areas, may be logistically challenging to implement. There will also be additional fishery monitoring and sampling costs in some areas.
o Effects on ecosystems: Producing hatchery-origin Chinook to support fisheries must be carefully planned in order to manage ecosystem effects (e.g. carrying capacity of natural systems to support salmon); control potential competitive interactions between hatchery and wild salmon; ensure genetic diversity of wild origin salmon is maintained; and ensure MSF do not adversely impact wild stocks of conservation concern.
• Consideration of mark selective fisheries is done through the Department’s annual consultation process to develop Salmon Integrated Fisheries Management Plans.

• Mass marking and mark-selective fisheries are tools that can help address conservation and sustainable use challenges faced by Pacific salmon.
• DFO released a consultation paper on June 27, 2022 and is continuing to consult broadly with First Nations and stakeholders on the benefits and challenges associated with mark selective fisheries to inform our approach. Comments were received September 30, 2022.
• Technical work is ongoing to address identified issues and support implementation of mass marking and mark selective fisheries.