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Salmon harvesting is the “only substantial threat to Interior Fraser steelhead that can be immediately mitigated” to save a population that has fallen from 8,000 spawners to only 277, writes Zacharias.

DFO is still crafting its response to the letter.

The Recovery Potential Assessment recently completed by DFO was peer-reviewed by the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) peer review process, according to the ministry.

The resulting Science Advisory Report provides “the best available consensus-based science advice.”

Because steelhead are an unintentional by-catch of salmon fisheries, DFO is proposing to continue with 27-day rolling closures of commercial and First Nations salmon fisheries implemented last year, which are “designed to protect the central 90 per cent of the steelhead migration from key fisheries.”

The closures anticipate the steelhead as they migrate through the Johnstone Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into the Fraser River.

But critics such as Watershed Watch and the B.C. Wildlife Federation say the science supports closures between 60 to 84 days to protect the run from imminent extinction.

The original research document, produced in a rare collaboration by provincial and federal scientists and outside contractors, was vetted by 42 experts from government, academia, First Nations and conservation groups, but never publicly released.

“The best available science was whitewashed by DFO,” said BCWF spokesman Jesse Zeman.