Perry PPT Presentation

1
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Ian Perry Fisheries Oceans Canada, Pacific
Biological Station Nanaimo, BC Ian.Perry_at_dfo-mpo.g
c.ca

With contributions from Dick Beamish, Diane
Masson, Sophie Johannessen, Bruce McCarter
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
2
Status of the Strait of Georgia

• Large scale drivers of changes in the Strait of
  Georgia
• human population growth
• (including demographic and land use changes)
• global, regional, and local economic changes
• (including lifestyle changes)
• climate change

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
3
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Human population Strait of Georgia Regional
Districts
Population increases from 1986 to 2006
Vancouver 54 Nanaimo 71 Powell River 9
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
4
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Georgia Basin is increasingly being urbanised
Urbanisation
Forest cover
Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem Action Plan

1990s
1990s
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
5
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Employment in Fishing and Fish Processing
Employment in fishing and fish processing is more
important in some Regional Districts than in
others

Data BC Stats, 2001
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
6
Status of the Strait of Georgia

• Increasing human population and related economic
  and land use changes bring
• increased marine traffic
• increased habitat disruption/destruction (both
  along shorelines and in river basins)
• increased contaminants
• increased invasive species
• increased fishing effort (commercial and
  recreational)

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
7
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Hardening of shorelines and loss of important
habitat
TOTAL Chemainus Englishman Squamish Burrard
Inlet Cowichan Nanaimo Campbell River Little
Qualicum Courtenay Baynes Sound
Change in extent of marshes and estuaries from
Past to Present

Change
Levings and Thom 1994
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
8
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Marine transport through the Strait of Georgia is
increasing
Shipping tonnage through Vancouver is increasing
1948
2007
VANCOUVER PORT AUTHORITY Statistics Overview 2007
BC Environment Report, 2007
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
9
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) on Vancouver
Island

1987
Slides courtesy Max Bothwell, Nanaimo
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
10
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) on Vancouver
Island
Puntledge River 1993

1987
1988-1998
Slides courtesy Max Bothwell, Nanaimo
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
11
Status of the Strait of Georgia
The culprits? Recreational use of rivers
Fishing
Felt-soled waders

Slides courtesy Max Bothwell, Nanaimo
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
12
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Global air temperatures among warmest recorded

www.ncdc.noaa.gov
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
13
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Recent pattern in the Strait of Georgia has been
warming
Surface Temperature

P. Chandler

• Strait of Georgia
• has warmed by 1 ?C in the past 100 years
• warming is occurring through all depths
• Fraser River is particularly susceptible to
  warming

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
P. Chandler, DFO 2008
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Status of the Strait of Georgia
Flow patterns of the Fraser River are expected to
change
Modelled results showing the change in daily
Fraser River flow expected from
rainfall-dominated conditions (A) (under expected
climate change) compared with current snow
melt-dominated conditions (B)

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
15
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Together, these forces interact to affect the
state of the marine ecosystem in the Strait of
Georgia
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
16
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Plankton blooms are occurring earlier

Change in timing of peak copepod bloom
Date of peak phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms
have been getting earlier, and abundance of key
species has been decreasing
El-Sabaawi and Dower, U.Vic.
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
17
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Mismatches between predator and prey can lead to
starvation



Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
18
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Historical fishery landings in Strait of Georgia

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
19
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Example of bottom fish fishery patterns in Strait
of Georgia
Inshore rockfish
Fishing for inshore rockfish and lingcod in the
Strait of Georgia has been heavily curtailed
since the mid-1990s due to stock abundance
problems and management measures.

Lingcod
Wallace, 2002
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
20
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Herring in the Strait of Georgia have been doing
well
(Thousand tonnes)

J. Schweigert, 2008
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
21
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Salmon in the Georgia Basin region (1)
Marine survival of coho in Georgia Basin is
declining


1986
2006
J. Irvine, 2008
Coho have been leaving the Strait of Georgia
Simpson et al. 2002
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
22
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Salmon in the Georgia Basin region (2)
Fraser River sockeye are declining, but still
within historical ranges

K. Hyatt, 2008

Total returns of pink salmon to the Fraser River
1963 to 2007 are increasing
Est.
Beamish et al.
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
23
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Harbour seal abundance increased then stabilised
Harbour seal abundance in Strait of Georgia from
1970 to present Estimated and measured Harbour
seal abundance in BC from late 1870s to present

Courtesy of P. Olesiuk
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
24
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Killer whales in the Strait of Georgia
Killer whale population in the Strait of Georgia
has been declining

Southern population
PCBs in Killer whales peaked in 1970 but they
persist in body tissues.
Northern population
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
25
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Summary of current status of Strait of Georgia

• Given the forces driving changes in the Strait of
  Georgia, it has become
• increasingly dominated by human impacts, although
  environmental (climate-related) changes remain
  important
• climate likely dominates inter-annual
  variability
• climate and human impacts force decadal and
  longer variability
• increasingly dominated by pelagic species,
  although benthic invertebrates appear to be
  within historic ranges
• perhaps less productive for (at least some
  species of) Pacific salmon
• different now than 30-50 years ago

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
26
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Comments from Public discussions on goals for the
Strait of Georgia A future where all species can
thrive, none at the expense or detriment of
others so human impacts must be minimized
Educate children about nature and our
environment Orca pods, dolphins, whales, wildlife
in general, regulations to protect sea life, no
pollutants from Fraser A well understood
ecosystem, well managed in a sustainable
way Emphasis on sport fishing versus
commercial More data needed on the effect of
recreational boating and other small craft What
effect will increases in shipping have? More
fish Make it healthier Harvest seals under your
IFMP Bring back coho salmon Leave the Strait as
natural as possible but monitor oftenLess
waterfront development
Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
27
Status of the Strait of Georgia
Conclusions

• Strait of Georgia has changed, is changing, and
  will continue to change
• we can project forward and predict what these
  changes may lead to, but there will always be
  surprises
• whether these changes are bad is relative
  depending on how they compare to desired outcomes
  and conditions for the Strait
• an absolute bad is reduction in the ability of
  the Strait of adjust to, and recover from,
  changes i.e. reduction in the resilience of the
  Strait to changes
• must maintain the natural abilities of this
  ecosystem and its components to adjust to natural
  and human-induced changes
• move from fishing-as-business towards sustainable
  livelihoods concepts, and from control-of-nature
  thinking towards a view of humans-in-ecosystem
  management

Symposium on Sustaining Wild Salmon moving from
words to actions. Campbell River, BC, 16 August
2008
28
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