Salmon runs on Canada’s west coast have declined drastically in recent years because of habitat destruction, overfishing, and changing ocean conditions, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pacific Fisheries Resource Council. The report also found that the Canadian Fisheries Department can’t do its job because it lacks the money to properly monitor salmon stocks. For example, fisheries officials can’t account for what happened to 3.5 million sockeye that swam up the Fraser River last year but never reached their spawning grounds. The report calls for more cooperation between governments on protecting habitat, and it was pointedly delivered to both the Canadian government and the British Columbia provincial government, which feud nastily over fisheries policy.
