No shortage of action: that sums up the first few months of federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Jonathan Wilkinson’s tenure in the portfolio. Since he was appointed in July 2018, he’s announced a new Wild Salmon Policy Implementation Plan for Pacific salmon, introduced new measures to help protect highly endangered southern resident killer whales, celebrated the second anniversary of the Oceans Protection Plan and is at the helm of Canadian efforts to address the international issue of abandoned fishing gear. He’s also inherited oversight of saving the last North Atlantic right whales following last summer’s crisis in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Canadian Geographic publisher and COO Gilles Gagnier and editor-in-chief Aaron Kylie sat down with Wilkinson on Parliament Hill on Nov. 8, 2018, to discuss these topics and more.

On Indigenous collaboration in fisheries management

The fishery is important to many, many Indigenous communities, and we recognize that as part of the reconciliation process, fisheries is one of the areas where it is perhaps simplest to make tangible progress on the ground. That is something that has evolved in some measure through court decisions over the past number of years, but we’re also committed to ensuring we’re involving Indigenous Peoples, not simply from a food and ceremonial perspective, but in the commercial fishery that’s an economic engine for coastal communities. As we move forward, we can start to think more about co-management of the fishery.

On the Wild Salmon Policy Implementation Plan

We announced that in British Columbia on the same day we kicked off the International Year of the Salmon, with the province. One key piece of an effective salmon management plan is federal-provincial cooperation, because some concerns are provincial jurisdiction and others are clearly federal. With British Columbia, we’ve agreed that we need to align our work to ensure we’re being effective and judicious in the use of the resources. More money for habitat restoration is important, and in the short-to-medium term, additional investments in things like hatcheries are going to be important, too. We also need to know how we can address the emerging effects of climate change. The runs coming back on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts are really problematic. That’s almost certainly in part a function of warming temperatures of the ocean.

On challenges in Pacific salmon conservation

Habitat restoration is a big one. The issue around hatcheries on the West Coast is a big one and looking at some of the issues around predation. I’m not convinced from a scientific perspective that predation is as big an issue as some people think it is, but we have to look at. And then there’s just how do you manage the fishery? What are you actually allowing from a take perspective, whether it’s commercial or recreational or ceremonial? We’re making decisions based on the best available science, but we could use more science, especially on some of the things like stock assessment. That’s a function of resourcing, and that’s something we need to address going forward.