For fish sake!

We all know fish can’t talk. They can’t brag about their amazing diversity. As University of British Columbia freshwater fish specialist Dr. Eric Taylor’s recent blog notes: “almost 40% of all fishes (some 33,000 species and counting) occur in freshwaters, yet freshwater habitats make up only 0.8% of the total surface area of the Earth! Per unit area, diversity of freshwater fishes is unmatched.”
 
 
Fish can’t march in the streets, or hold mock funerals for the Death of Evidence. They can’t methodically comb through the evidence to evaluate claims. They can’t send letters to national leaders as thousands of scientists have done protesting new laws that will allow much easier destruction of their homes.  And they can’t decide their own increasingly uncertain fate as more and more are found to be at risk. Since 1977, 84 wildlife freshwater fish species have been classified at some level of risk in Canada (i.e., endangered, threatened, or special concern) using internationally recognized assessment criteria, according to Dr. Taylor, the co-chair of Committee on the Status of endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)’s Freshwater Fishes Subcommittee.

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in clear river water, Canada. © J. D. Taylor / WWF-Canada

 
But we can do all of these things, and we must, if we want to stop the alarming decline in freshwater fish survival.  And that’s just what is happening as more and more Canadians are protesting the cavalier dismissal of scientific expertise, evidence based decision-making and democratic due process by the federal government in their passage of Bill C38, the budget bill that offhandedly gutted many of our best laws to protect nature.
The government’s main rationale for changing the fish habitat parts of the federal Fisheries Act was disproved by another excellent piece – Canada’s Weakening Aquatic Protection -from scientists from Simon Fraser University, who  combed through thousands of development proposals from 2006-11 and found only one turned down by the federal environmental assessment process- only partly due to potential destruction of fish habitat. They also surveyed 1283 convictions by the federal government for violations of the Fisheries Act in the same time period and found that only 21 related to destruction of fish habitat. Their conclusion? “These low numbers could reflect compliance with the habitat provision of the law, in which case there is no reason to alter it, or a poor enforcement capacity, which cannot be blamed on the law.”
Dr. Taylor, an eminent scientists and one we are proud to have on our panel of Canadians for the Great Bear, says the replacements for the old HADD provisions in the federal Fisheries Act are ‘biologically indefensible.” He reminds us that “loss or degradation of habitat is the most important factor leading to at risk status for freshwater biodiversity, especially fishes, worldwide and in Canada”  and backs this up with the citations to prove it.
So please read these pieces from some of Canada’s top aquatic scientists.   Then, decide if YOU want to speak up for fish.