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Federal Fisheries scientists said last year that Pacific salmon and their ecosystems are already responding to warming trends and marine heat waves.

Photo by Rolf Hicker / PNG

Meantime, air temperatures over B.C. and Yukon have reached record highs in recent years, and in Yukon have risen twice as fast as in southern Canada. Temperatures were especially high from 2015 to 2018, and coincided with a marine heat wave, the scientists said.

Last month, First Nation and union leaders said the federal and provincial governments need to step in to help fishermen through the worst commercial fishing season in 50 years as runs have plummeted for all species and in all regions.

Hicker said he has been bombarded with emails from people accusing him of digitally altering his images and of spreading “fake news” about climate change, he said.

“I get so much hate mail right now — you wouldn’t believe it,” Hicker said. He has also drawn criticism from people in government, fish-farm operators and other tour firms who say he’s hurting business, he said.

“I don’t care because I think about my business over the next 20 years, and not just about tomorrow,” Hicker said. “I think about my kids. I think about other people. If we don’t point those things out, how should change ever be made?”

Photo by Handout / PNG

Hicker said he will leave it to scientists to explain why the grizzlies aren’t eating properly, but said he believes a first step in helping whales and bears find more salmon is to ban controversial open-pen salmon farms in B.C., which critics allege spread disease, viruses and sea lice.