© Werner Van Steen / Getty ImagesThe number of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in the Fraser River has fallen dramatically over the past two decades.
Multi-million dollar judicial inquiry expected to offer few solutions to declining fish stocks.
As the last of this year's sockeye salmon battle up the Fraser River along the southern outskirts of Vancouver, Canada, a rather longer battle about the fishes' fate is drawing to a close in a staid courtroom downtown.
More than 4.5 million salmon have surged along the Fraser this year, returning to spawn before dying. But that is far fewer than the sockeye runs of 20 years ago, when the river was the world's single largest source of Pacific salmon, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars each year to British Columbia's economy.
Back in 2009, when just 1.5 million out of a forecasted 10.6 million fish returned to the river, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for a judicial inquiry into the missing salmon and appointed Bruce Cohen, Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, to preside over the mammoth task. The last of the inquiry's 128 witnesses are taking to the stand this month. Yet scientists and the public are questioning whether the Cohen Commission, which has cost an estimated CAN$25 million (US$24.4 million), has been a waste of time.
Comment: For additional data see Canary Islands Government Raises El Hierro Volcanic Risk Level.