Thread by @JZThinAir

“Fisheries official denies coverup allegations over research into endangered B.C. steelhead”

Will comment after blood pressure goes down.

Thanks @winstonszeto for covering this.

#EndangeredSpecies #steelhead #managingtozero #speciesatrisk

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…

So here are some of the related documents with regards to this issue. The reader can decide whether there is a coverup or not.

1) A "deemed refusal" of an ATIP on steelhead where the OIC office indicates the options are to take DFO to Federal Court to get the records.

Here is correspondence with another OIC investigator trying to get the RPA. DFO continually sends the investigator the wrong documents.

And some more on DFO sending the wrong documents to the investigator.

There are literally hundreds of media articles showing how the process was hijacked.

See in coverage from @Sevawood and @justine_hunter in 2021:
thenarwhal.ca/dfo-steelhead-…
theglobeandmail.com/canada/british…

This isn't new. You can see this in 2019 with coverage by @theGreenManblog and it actually goes back before then.

vancouversun.com/news/local-new…

Here's another one from 2019: vancouversun.com/news/local-new…

Round and round and round we go. Listened to DFO's interview with @chriswalker on August 5. Please see: cbc.ca/listen/live-ra…

Interesting the head of "science" doesn't agree when tens of thousands of pages of documents show experts including multiple DFO staff indicate DFO has hidden, edited or interfered with the process.

104 and 19, that's all that's left. Thx DFO!

Thought I was done but actually I'm not. Let's talk about science a bit more. Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans testimony provided May 5, 2022:
ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer…

Provided by Dr. @Reynolds_JohnD : "other example that I'll very briefly mention involving DFO's struggle to generate independent science advice comes from the case of endangered steelhead trout in British Columbia. Again, the committee has heard already from others about that."

"the advice to the minister that came from this review reduced the emphasis on the role of bycatch salmon fisheries as an ongoing threat to the steelhead—and bycatch management, I'll remind you, is DFO's responsibility."

Dr. Josh Korman: "I've been an author on seven papers that have gone through the CSAS or PSARC review process. I have also acted a reviewer on a number of occasions."

" I have observed substantive meddling by DFO in the conversion of a recovery potential assessment report for interior Fraser steelhead into the scientific advice report or SAR."

"First, reductions in the abundance of seals and sea lions was deemed to be the most effective way of recovering steelhead populations. This fundamental conclusion was substantially altered by DFO when they wrote the SAR."

"This directly contradicts our final report, where multiple lines of evidence for the relationship between steelhead and seals and sea lions was presented."

" I don't recall hearing any substantiated objections to our conclusions during the CSAS proceedings, but I can't document this discrepancy because the proceedings are still not available."

"immediate reduction in bycatch mortality is a logical potential action that the minister could take. In writing the SAR, some at DFO tried to head off this potential outcome by stating, “Allowable harm should not be permitted to exceed current levels”. "

"We never said this in the final recovery potential document. We said, “and exploitation be reduced below current levels of exploitation whenever possible”."

"In summary, the main conclusions from the SAR for interior Fraser steelhead are not consistent with the main findings of the final recovery potential report."

I'm guessing you all get the point by now.