Most fishers and smaller processors are hard working, trustworthy people.
Part 4 in this 4 part series – BC Fishers Made Scapegoats
They are also, for the most part, friendly. Fishers have a lot in common with farmers who have also suffered similar economic fate at the hands of large corporations and government.
Independent fishers need more access to wild BC salmon, not less!
Marketing councils work in partnership with large processors that in a good season scoops up millions of tons of wild BC salmon to boil, can, and sell in Europe at premium prices and high profit.
The work with private contractors to win grants that allow them to promote canned wild BC Salmon in Europe under a Canadian banner even though independent British Columbian fishers provide a large portion of the funds to get the ball rolling.
BC wild salmon is promoted as Canadian salmon in Europe regardless of the fact that BC is now the only province where wild salmon is commercially captured. The East Coast commercial wild salmon fishery collapsed a long time ago. The only commercial salmon the East has left is Atlantic FARMED salmon.
Today, if you capture and sell wild salmon, it comes from the West Coast, but because of restrictive clauses in grant agreements, it CANNOT be promoted in Europe as a BC food product, which is detrimental to independent BC salmon fishers.
Back in the day, when wild BC salmon stocks were healthy, global sales strategies and restrictions like this were reluctantly acceptable. Today however, now that wild BC salmon stocks are seriously depleted, some strains even extinct, it makes no sense to seine net salmon like it was 1950 and churn it into SPAMon that sells at an artificially inflated price to an uneducated foreign market. Europeans and Asians have little idea some strains of BC wild salmon are extinct.
If such a large volume of wild BC salmon wasn’t being shipped off to Europe and China there would be more fish left in local waters for independent fishers to capture. The absolute biggest complaint independent BC salmon fishers have is that the DFO restricts their capture quotas because the government claims salmon stocks are under too much pressure. It’s the same government that partners with large processors that sell millions of tons of canned salmon in Europe at premium prices and high margin.
Today, it makes better sense, from a sustainability and marketing perspective, to invest more research and development in FRESH and FRESH FROZEN wild BC salmon, a seafood product that when promoted properly, raises the perceived value of Canada’s iconic fish and puts more of it in the local and national market at an affordable price. As good as lobster tastes, and as much as we all love it, remember, wild salmon is a much more nutritious food choice than lobster slathered in butter. Fresh and fresh frozen wild BC salmon is rich in Omega-3 and a heart-healthy food source for kids and seniors alike.
Large processors, whose capital investment and infrastructure are primarily modeled on old school canning, can’t generate the same profit margin on fresh or fresh frozen salmon, so even though fresh is good for the health of salmon stocks and local consumers, it’s not a product line large processors are interested in developing. Profit is paramount and everything else takes a back seat. Decades ago, when Canada had healthy salmon stocks, few people were concerned about who was profiting and by how much, but today sustainability issues are radically different, as reported by the Cohen Commission.
Today, for consumers, it makes more sense to only eat wild salmon that has been minimally processed so it retains all its natural goodness. Eating higher quality fresh and fresh frozen wild salmon means you can eat less and receive more heath benefits, which translates into more people having access at a cost effective price point. It’s the responsible and common sense thing to do.
When you’re talking about a wild, potentially non-renewable living food source which in part is a result of fishing pressure, climate change, and pollution, it’s unethical to allow profit to undermine the sustainability of such a valuable keystone fish.
Wild BC salmon is a living creature, not a billboard ad, or a car.
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Click to read Part 1 of this 4 Part series – BC Salmon Fishers Made Scapegoats
This article, in fact the whole series makes a lot of sense. I’m a small processor so I have to withhold my name, but the big problem as I see it is that the BC salmon industry in general isn’t organised.
The animosity between fishers is out of control. Commercial fishers fight with each other and also sport fishers. BC salmon is without doubt the best salmon on the planet, but unless there is more cooperation between all the different people in the industry things will only get worse.
I really wasn’t aware of how grants impact fisheries and how it harms transparency. As the old saying goes, there ain’t no free lunch and what you don’t know can hurt you.
As a commercial salmon fisherman I think the problem has a lot to do with allocation of quotas. Even though the DFO doesn’t come out and say it there’s no doubt they feel some species of BC salmon are in serious decline. It’s reflected in the limitations they put on us indie fishers.
It really bothers me and my family that the DFO has either purposely or inadvertently made it impossible for independent fishermen to survive while they make it very easy for big processors like CANFISCO to reap even greater profit.
It sounds reasonable that maybe were canning too many salmon, but its how I make most of my money so I’m not sure if it makes sense to limit it.
Jim Pattison is the last person I can think of who should have so much control over the survival of wild BC salmon. It’s no secret profit is high on his list.
I’m a relatively small processor, and most of the indie fishers who drop here seem pretty serious about sustainability, but as we’ve seen recently on the Watershed Watch Salmon Society video, sustainability doesn’t seem to be that important to Gold Seal, a CANFISCO/Jim Pattison company.
Salmon abuse video
http://www.watershed-watch.org/2013/08/media-release-new-evidence-shows-thousands-of-unwanted-salmon-are-needlessly-killed-when-no-one-is-watching-the-fishermen-groups-want-oversight/
Watershed Watch letter about DFO and Canfisco throwing fishers under the bus
http://www.watershed-watch.org/2013/08/conservation-groups-say-federal-investigation-is-scapegoating-fishermen-dfo-and-pattison-group-throwing-a-few-fishermen-under-the-bus-wont-fix-systemic-problems/
I think most small processors and fishers would like to see better distribution of quotas to trollers and gillnetters. Their gear type is more in line with sustainable commercial salmon fishing. Granted, they are not as efficient as the well-organized CANFISCO seine fleet that can easily strip the ocean, but that’s part of the problem and why each group needs to be treated differently.
Captains and crews on CANFISCO boats don’t seem to have the same sense of responsibility as the rest of us, but yet because of their size they are allowed to process the most salmon. If they at least paid indie fishers fair prices I don’t think as many people would complain, but as it is, they scoop up a disproportionate amount of the supply and don’t give enough back.
I haven’t bought the cheap canned salmon for years because my family won’t eat it. We love the premium stuff from St Jean’s and Raincoast because it’s great for salads and sandwiches, but because of the scarcity of wild salmon we usually prefer to buy fresh and frozen. It’s better value and seems to be a more sustainable approach.
I didn’t know salmon was so political and such a cash cow for big companies.
I also had no idea why local wild salmon is so expensive in our BC market.
Better to keep wild BC salmon closer to home in Canada so it doesn’t end up like East Coast lobster, artificially priced and out of reach to everyone but the wealthy.
Susan
I haven’t bought the cheap canned salmon for years because my family won’t eat it. We do however love the premium stuff from St Jean’s and Raincoast because it’s great for salads and sandwiches, but because of the scarcity of wild salmon we prefer to buy fresh and frozen. It’s better value.
I didn’t know salmon was so political and such a cash cow for big companies.
I also had no idea why local wild salmon is so expensive in our BC market.
Better to keep wild BC salmon closer to home in Canada so it doesn’t end up like East Coast lobster, artificially priced and out of reach to everyone but the wealthy.
Susan
Salmon runs have declined steeply from their historic levels because of dams that blocked access to ancestral spawning streams and, more recently, due to polluted runoff into rivers from fertilized fields and urban waste. And there are those killer delta pumps that not only eat fish but reverse San Joaquin River flows, fatally confusing young salmon.