Horsefly River Salmon Festival cancelled because of lack of sockeye

The community of Horsefly, B.C., is canceling its annual salmon festivalbecause of a shortage of the main attraction Fraser River sockeye.

"Basically there's not going to be any fish for anybody to look at," saidMaureenLeBourdais,chair of the Horsefly River Roundtable, the environmental stewardship group that organizes the festival.

LeBourdaissaidthe Horsefly River spawning groundin B.C.'sInterior usually seesmore than 100,000 sockeye salmon. But so far this year, only 3,000 have arrived.

"It's sad,certainly," she told Radio West host Audrey McKinnon."It's also frustrating,because this is something that we've seen coming.They haven't just disappeared."

LeBourdaissaid the decline in returning salmon was being observed even before the virtual collapse of theFraserRiver sockeye run in 2009. Low returns that year prompted the Cohen Commission, a 2012 report that made 75 recommendations on how to prevent the decline ofFraserRiver sockeye.

• Fisheries minister plans 'concrete' action to fight declining sockeye run

Federal Fisheries MinisterDomincLeBlanc on Tuesday committed to implementing the recommendations in that report.

LeBourdais saidshe's hopeful changes will be made, so the festivaland the salmon it celebrates can return,but cautioned there are no easy solutions.

"You can point at fish farms.You can point at logging.You can point at this and point at that and say, 'that's the cause,'" she said.

"But it's usas humans;it's all of us, and the way that we live on this planet.And it's up to all of us collectively, including all levels of government, to make some changes in the way that we live on this planet."

With files from Josh Pag and Audrey McKinnon