Successes and failures of the Salmonid Enhancement Program in British Columbia

The Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) in British Columbia has been the largest government fisheries program in Canada designed to enhance fisheries production. Canada has spent over CA$1 billion in the past 49 years, with an original objective of doubling the harvest of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. in British Columbia. We reflect on whether the program has been a success and how its objectives have changed. We find that the program has totally failed to meet its original objective of doubling the harvest of salmon in British Columbia. Instead of doubling, the harvest of salmon has declined from 60,000 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes in recent years, and SEP production has constituted only 13–30% of the value of the commercial harvest and a similar proportion of the recreational catch. By the 1990s, it was recognized that the goal of doubling salmon production by technology was not realistic, and the objectives of the program have shifted much more toward rebuilding depleted stocks, habitat restoration, and community involvement. However, the dramatic decline in catch is only partially due to declining salmon returns, which have declined roughly 35% since the 1970s, far less than the harvest. The focus of management in SEP is now on protecting and rebuilding depleted stocks not on augmenting commercial and recreational harvest.