Chinook Endangered Species?

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), has recommended that the Minister of Environment emergency list Okanagan River chinook as endangered under Canada's Species at Risk Act based on an Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) stock status report. The classification of this population will ensure that the Federal government will have a statutory and legal obligation to recover this population.

"This is about protecting the Title and Rights of the Okanagan Nation", states Chief Stewart Phillip, ONA Chairman. "By protecting and recovering this important species, we can work to ensure that our children and grandchildren will continue to have constitutionally protected fishing rights in our Territory. Our people want to be able to fish again."

Historically chinook salmon were an important part of the Okanagan Nation fishery in the Okanagan River, but currently there is no chinook fishery because their population has declined to the brink of extirpation. The severe decline of Okanagan River chinook can be attributed to a number of factors, including commercial fisheries in the ocean and lower Columbia River, construction of mainstream Columbia River and Okanagan River dams and diversions, habitat alterations, channelization and water withdrawals.

ONA Title and Rights Advisor, Byron Louis adds that, "Chinook are an integral part of our environment and our culture and we have not been able to fish for them as part of our ceremonial and food fisheries for at least half a century".

It is estimated that there are less than 50 chinook adults that return yearly to the Okanagan River in Canada, but very little is known about the population. Some preliminary genetic analysis has been completed, but because the sample size is small, there is inconclusive evidence to determine whether or not this is a unique population, separate from the Okanagan chinook population in Washington State.

For decades, the federal government has considered chinook extirpated from the Okanagan Basin, and because of this, no resources had been dedicated to studying this stock and they were simply recorded as a side bar in other studies. Following several years of observing chinook juveniles and adults in the Okanagan River, the ONA took steps to develop their independent stock status report last year calling attention to the lack of support for this beleaguered stock.

The Okanagan Nation is calling for Minister Geoff Regan of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to meet with the ONA to meet his consultative and fiduciary requirements for access to Okanagan chinook for food, social and ceremonial purposes, and prior to providing his recommendations to the Minister of Environment Stephane Dion. Significant resources will be needed to conduct further studies and research to help us understand this unique population in
order to effectively recover this stock.

"There have been recent instances in BC where salmon have not received an adequate level of protection, so we would encourage Minister Regan to do the right thing, and help us protect Okanagan River chinook by having them
declared as endangered.", says ONA Chairman, Chief Stewart Phillip.