"When bureaucrats attribute lower sockeye numbers to 1998's El Nino, they conveniently ignore and intentionally divert attention from their own inept fisheries management practices in 1995 and the strong returns elsewhere on the Pacific coast this year."

"The fact is fewer sockeye are returning to the Fraser in 1999 because few made it to the spawning grounds in 1995. DFO's contention that returns in 1995 were the third highest on record is simply false."

"The management failures in 1995 are similar to those that caused the sockeye disaster on the Fraser in 1994, a disaster that was analyzed by John Fraser's Fraser River Sockeye Public Review Board. Fraser found the disaster was a departmental failure rather than an environmental failure. Prior to his report the department's explanation had been to blame God for failing to provide the right water temperatures. John Fraser wasn't fooled in 1994 and we must not be fooled today."

Internal Department of Fisheries enforcement reports from 1995 reveal, as in 1994, a breakdown in the Department's ability to protect the fish as they migrated up the Fraser to spawn.

Early in the spring of 1995 Fisheries enforcement supervisors reported to management that they did not have a sufficient number of officers to adequately address enforcement demands. Their pleas were ignored. Poaching and illegal sales were rampant in 1995. Without enforcement in place to ensure the accuracy of catch and escapement numbers departmental estimates of actual spawners were little more than wishful thinking.