A senior Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) official denied allegations that the federal government covered up scientific findings concerning steelhead fish, a unique kind of rainbow trout in British Columbia, to justify the continuance of commercial fishing that endangers the species. The allegations partially come from B.C. Wildlife Federation Executive director Jesse Zeman, who stated that the federal government still will not make available to the public peer-reviewed scientific research that concludes that fisheries should be restricted to save steelhead in the Thompson River and Chilcotin River from extinction. Steelhead are a member of the salmon family who migrate to the ocean for much of their life but hatch and spawn in these two rivers. Zoologists and conservation groups in the province for years have warned of the detrimental state of this species, with an annual update in July by B.C. Ministry of Forests alerting that numbers for the species are at historic lows, showing preliminary estimates that only 104 Thompson River steelhead and nineteen Chilcotin River steelhead are spawning this year. On August 5th, Andrew Thomson, DFO’s Vancouver Regional Director for the Pacific, refuted allegations that an assessment on the recovery potential of the species has yet to be published and that a science advisory report was edited by DFO officials without scientists’ knowledge.