It's believed to be a blueprint that will help resurrect the decimated Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks, but four months after the release of the Cohen Commission's final report, no tangible changes have been made.

Those are the feelings of people in both the scientific community and members of the official Opposition, who are calling on the federal Conservatives to take immediate action on the 75 recommendations coming out of the report issued last October.

Few, if any, of the recommendations have been implemented to date, and a series of deadlines tied to Justice Bruce Cohen's recommendations have already passed without action being taken.

"No one has heard [anything] from government on the report," said Craig Orr, a Coquitlam resident who serves as executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

"We've been trying to get government to move. We've had lots of concerns over what we believe to be biased government science on aquaculture impacts."

According to Orr, the deadlines for three key recommendations in the report have come and gone. Close to a half dozen other deadlines are approaching at the end of this month.

One of the deadlines already missed involves a recommendation to hire a senior Fisheries and Oceans Canada staffer to oversee the implementation of the Wild Salmon Policy, a wide-ranging salmon management and conservation document crafted in 2005.

"That's the first deadline that was missed that we're very concerned about," Orr said.

Orr was one of more than 100 witnesses to testify before the commission, which sat for 18 months and cost about $26 million.

The final report was issued on Oct. 31, 2012 and pointed to a number of factors behind the sockeye collapse: changing water temperatures, competition for food out at sea, and the prevalence of pathogens in certain fish.

The report also suggested farmed salmon had transferred diseases to wild fish throughout B.C.'s central coast.

The NOW attempted to contact Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam MP James Moore for comment last week. Moore's press secretary referred The NOW to the office of Keith Ashfield, the minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Ultimately, Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokesperson Frank Stanek responded in an e-mail that the federal government is still examining the findings from the Cohen Commission. He did not provide timelines as to when any of the recommendations would be implemented.

"The Government of Canada has long recognized the importance of protecting sockeye salmon in the Fraser River," Stanek said. "This is why the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River was called."

In an interview last week, New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly blasted the government over the delay, accusing the Conservatives of "just going through the motions."

"To come back and not have any answers, and to say they're still looking into it after four months is unacceptable," Donnelly said.

"When you have that kind of an investment, $26 million, and numerous reports over a number of years, there should be a political commitment to enact those recommendations immediately. They haven't."

jkurucz@thenownews.com