The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada undermined a scientific consensus that spelled out fishing threats to an endangered species in B.C., documents suggest. Now, some are calling for DFO to be torn down and rebuilt with scientists at the helm.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) undermined a scientific report spelling out existential threats to two endangered B.C. steelhead trout populations, according to hundreds of pages of internal documents obtained by the BC Wildlife Federation.
Much of the nearly 2,700 pages, obtained through the Access to Information and Privacy Act, stem from a January 2018 decision from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) to classify steelhead trout on the Thompson and Chilcotin rivers as endangered.
Scientists sounded the alarm on dwindling steelhead trout numbers in B.C.’s southern interior three years ago, but proposed solutions proved contentious