VANCOUVER - A fisheries scientist says she believes senior government officials in Ottawa stopped her from talking to the media about her research into the 2009 sockeye salmon collapse in B.C.

Kristi Miller told a federal inquiry that she believes officials within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were OK with her talking about her published article in the journal Science.

But she says the issue was taken out of their hands by officials in Ottawa.

Miller says she believes that order came from the Privy Council office, which serves the prime minister.

Her article was published in the January edition of the journal and environmentalists have charged that Ottawa muzzled the molecular biologist.

The Fisheries minister said in a statement last month that Miller's work was available publicly on the commission website and that the government was committed to allowing the commission to do its work without outside influence.