Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Comité permanent des pêches et des océans

For immediate release

Ottawa, January 30, 2017 -

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans today tabled a unanimous report calling on the Government to take action in response to declining wild Atlantic salmon returns in Eastern Canada.

The report on the conservation, restoration and socio-economic issues related to the wild Atlantic salmon is based on testimony heard between May and October 2016, including public hearings held in Miramichi, New Brunswick.

The report’s 17 recommendations include:

•Conducting comprehensive research into the effects of climate change on the full lifecycle of wild Atlantic salmon;

•Considering aspects of the river-by-river management system utilized in Quebec, and the river classification system utilized in Newfoundland and Labrador, in the development of a new cost-effective management system to be implemented across the rest of the Atlantic region;

•Increasing capacity for regulatory enforcement and data collection relating to Atlantic salmon, through increased funding and collaboration with stakeholder groups;

•Developing a recovery plan to rebuild wild Atlantic salmon stocks to, at minimum, 1975 levels; and

•Investigating the opportunity for a First Nations striped bass commercial fishery.

Chaired by Mr. Scott Simms (Coast of Bays — Central — Notre Dame), the Committee comprises: Liberals Pat Finnigan (Miramichi — Grand Lake), Ken McDonald (Avalon), Bernadette Jordan (South Shore — St. Margarets), Ken Hardie (Fleetwood — Port Kells) and Robert Morrissey (Egmont); Conservatives Robert Sopuck (Dauphin — Swan River —Neepawa), Todd Doherty (Cariboo — Prince George) and Mel Arnold (North Okanagan — Shuswap); and from the New Democratic Party, Fin Donnelly (Port Moody — Coquitlam).