Submitter: Benjamin Coombes

Community: Victoria

Date Submitted: August 27, 2023

Summary:

To determine what is affecting Fraser sockeye, the commission should investigate the conditions that permitted the 2010 return to be so successful rather than what caused the decline in 2009. In addition, the commission should focus on variables such as predation and food availability and whether some 2009 sockeye held in the ocean for an additional year and joined the 2010 return.

Submission:

I recommend Judge Cohen strike down this Inquiry…and start a new one. Call it “what went right in 2010?”



It is difficult, if not impossible, to prove a negative (ie. what went wrong). It may be easier to scientifically prove a positive.



Obviously there were optimal conditions for this years sockeye. Was it lake production, was it river conditions, was it marine conditions?



Don’t waste too much energy focussing on relative consistents like forestry, urbanization and aquaculture (all have been around for the past decades and longer), and start focussing on variables like predator interactions and food availability.



And answer this important question: did some 2009 sockeye hold in the ocean for an additional year and join the 2010 return?



Ben