Petition to the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Petition to the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Started
January 24, 2022
Signatures: 2,028Next Goal: 2,500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Greg Gordon

Whereas:


British Columbia's Interior Fraser River steelhead, a group of several stocks including the internationally renowned Thompson River steelhead, are classified by the Province of British Columbia as an extreme conservation concern;


This year, fewer than 75 Thompson River steelhead are expected to return from a run that numbered in the thousands as recently as the first decade of this century;


Fewer than 35 steelhead are expected to return to the Chilcotin River;


The remaining stocks in the Interior Fraser steelhead group, collectively known as the West Fraser stock (Nahatlach, Bridge, Seton and Stein rivers,) have disappeared from both provincial and federal fisheries management agencies agendas and are not monitored;


Steelhead are intercepted in Canadian gill net and seine fisheries, including Aboriginal Food, Social and Ceremonial fisheries, which seek other co-migrating salmon and are authorized by Fisheries and Oceans Canada without due regard for Interior Fraser steelhead; and


In 2018, Fisheries and Oceans Canada unilaterally altered the scientific advice provided by Canada's Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) to avoid listing Interior Fraser steelhead under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). A second review by COSEWIC has resulted in a second classification of Interior Fraser steelhead as endangered and a second recommendation for listing under SARA. That recommendation has the support of a broad array of provincial, federal and international conservation organizations.


We, the undersigned, call upon the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change to recommend to Cabinet that Interior Fraser Steelhead are finally given the protection deserved under SARA.

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Signatures: 2,028Next Goal: 2,500
Support now
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