ANOTHER week, another study that shows the West Coast's salmon stocks are in peril.
This time it's a Simon Fraser University study concluding sockeye salmon from Alaska to Washington state have been consistently producing fewer and fewer successful adult offspring over the last six decades.
Meanwhile, the best we can get from our federal government is mixed messages.
Sure we can have a $26.4-million Cohen Commission to look into the collapse of the sockeye stocks, but before that report is even released, Ottawa has seen fit to eliminate fish habitat protection unless it is connected to a commercial or Aboriginal fishery in its latest budget.
There are also the cuts coming to Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada staff and the accusations of government scientists being muzzled or fired.
And what happens if the Cohen report, when it is released in September, produces findings that blame fish farms, overfishing, industrial development on waterways or pollution?
We hope it won't collect dust along with so many other government ordered reports that conflict with an industry-first agenda.
This is only more apropos coming on the 20th anniversary of the government shutting down the cod fishery in the Maritimes after stocks fell to crisis levels - a belated response that plunged fishing communities into decades of economic desperation.
Let's learn from the experiences of our East Coast counterparts. Their pain is something we'd like to avoid.
