Salmon are returning to the Fraser River sockeye fishery in dismally low numbers, despite government forecasts of a banner year for returns.
Prior to the start of the summer season, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) projected 739,000 sockeye salmon for the Fraser River fishery.
That number has since dropped to 264,000 - and some doubt many of those will even show up.
Sto:lo tribe fisheries adviser Ernie Crey says just 33,000 salmon have been counted in the Fraser.
The food fishery has been suspended, which Crey says threatens the survival of 94 bands that depend on salmon as a primary food source.
"This year is becoming a typical year," Tyrone McNeil, a Sto:lo fisherman said Wednesday.
"DFO will come forward with a forecast that'll say there's 'x' amount of millions of fish ... Then when the fish start getting closer, they realize the numbers are off."
DFO spokesperson Jeff Grout says the predictions were based on the best scientific information available, and that high water temperatures could be a factor in the poor returns.
"Salmon returns in past years have been affected by marine survival out in the ocean where they rear in the north Pacific," he said. "But we can also see fresh water conditions affect survival of salmon."
But while Grout says the situation is complicated, McNeil says he prefers the term "mismanaged."
"When you go from 100 million on average down to 10 million on a good year over 100 years, that's a prolonged collapse," McNeil says.
"DFO had to have learned what's taking place on the east coast and applied what they learned here."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart
