OTTAWA - The race-based Native Indian “Food Social and Ceremonial” fishery is causing political waves in British Columbia. The Cohen Commission is investigating the drastic drop in sockeye salmon returns to the Fraser River. Department of fisheries and oceans (DFO) investigators allege that illegal sales of “food fish” caught by native fishermen are partly to blame. Documents were tabled from a 2010 DFO meeting. "The FSC First Nations fishery on the Lower Fraser River is largely out of control and should be considered in all contexts, a commercial fishery," the assessment reportedly stated, warning DFO is "unable to effectively control the illegal sales." In a raid dubbed “Project Ice Storm,” DFO intelligence officers searched fish plants throughout Vancouver and the Fraser Valley in 2005. There were so few fish that year, the commercial fisheries were cancelled for both natives and non-natives. The First Nations Food and Ceremonial fishery, however, was permitted. DFO officers testified that they found more than 345,000 salmon in cold storage units, many of them professionally processed, apparently in preparation for commercial sale. “What was shocking was to hear federal fisheries officers say that 97% of the fish that were caught in these food, social and ceremonial licenses were being sold,” said John Cummins, B.C. Conservative Party leader designate. “We knew food fish were being sold. This was the case for years, it was common knowledge.” Cummins, who has been fighting against race-based fisheries for years. Cummins dropped his own fishing net into the Fraser River in 2002 as a protest and was fined $200. While some are angered by the DFO's discovery of more than a quarter million filleted and vacuum-sealed sockeye, a native leader from the region says it is easily explained. “If I went in and got 200 fish, that might be because I am going to feed people at a wedding, or a naming ceremony,” said Ernie Crey, former DFO employee and spokesperson for the Sto:lo Nation, that includes the Cheam Indian Band based in Agassiz, Hope and Yale along the Fraser River. “They assume Indian people are processing fish on the back porch, but that's not true, we have been storing our fish in cold storage plants for decades now.” Crey says several Vancouver Island Indian bands could also be storing fish in Vancouver, as that is the only location with commercial-sized units.