Canada – Every summer, millions of sockeye salmon would reach the waters of the Fraser River in British Columbia, but from the Canadian press, the vast majority of them never arrived.

After three years of closure of the sockeye salmon in the Fraser River, scientists had forecast a massive return of the sockeye salmon this summer. But far from 10 to 13 million specimens expected, only 1.7 million have found the path of river.

Barry Rosenberger, a senior official of Fisheries and Oceans, said that the fish are probably dead when they migrate from the sea but the reasons for this remain a mystery. “Scientists are stunned” told AFP, Sarah King, head of the campaign “ocean” of Greenpeace Canada.

Experts from the environmental group “are concerned about a possible interaction between wild salmon and sea lice coming from salmon breedings, in the Strait of Georgia,” she said. These lice weaken the salmons that have the strength to swim to the river and become easy prey for their different predators.

Other scientists believe that warming of the oceans could have caused the disappearance of salmon. The lack of food or increased activity of predators are also mentioned as possible causes.

Many families of Native American communities on the banks of the Fraser River live mainly from fishing. Such a reduction in the sockeye salmon population could quickly become catastrophic for them.

Fishermen and scientists now anxiously await the arrival of the pink salmons which usually takes place between late August and October.

Fraser Sockeye Lice Infection