Bears in B.C. starving because of salmon collapse
Posted on September 10th, 2009
GreenWire: A collapse of salmon runs is starving black and grizzly bears along British Columbia’s central coast, according to conservationists and ecotourism guides.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this. There has been a huge drop in the number of bears we see,” said Doug Neasloss, a bear-viewing guide with the Kitasoo-Xaixais tribes in Klemtu.
Neasloss said the salmon runs have been in decline for several years but last year was particularly bad.
“River systems that in the past had 50,000 to 60,000 chum have now got 10 fish,” said Ian McAllister, conservation director of the nonprofit Pacific Wild. “The chum runs have been fished out. We’ve seen the biological extinction of a [salmon] species, and now we’re seeing the impact on bears.”
Fred Seiler of Silvertip Ecotours said Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans should stop allowing salmon to be commercially harvested in places where stocks are in trouble (Mark Hume, Toronto Globe and Mail, Sept. 8). – JK