Spawning salmon reaching crisis point along Fraser River

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has called his department's new report on the state of wild Pacific salmon devastating.

In a dramatic shift, the department has adjusted the number of returning Fraser River sockeye to slighter over 600,000 marking a stark decline from earlier projections of almost five million.

The report cites climate change's impact on warming waters forcing primary food sources of Pacific salmon to migrate north and away from the feeding salmon.

Compounding the issue this summer has been the Big Bar landslide on the Fraser River near Kamloops.

Officials are currently working around the clock with a 100 staff to transport the roughly 270,000 spawning salmon trapped by the landslide.

Crews have used helicopters to transport roughly 26,000 salmon thus far and the effectiveness of the response has been criticized by local Indigenous chiefs.

According to Wilkinson, decisions about the slide response are made by members of a group that includes First Nations as well as provincial and federal officials.

With files from the Canadian Press.