Tag Archives: BC’s sockeye run

Rivers & Oceans

The past holds the key to the future for Skeena sockeye: SFU researcher

Editor’s note: This solution would not work for Chum, the principal salmon species found on Cortes Island. Unlike Coho, Chinook, and Sockeye, Chum do not reside in fresh water for an extended period. The 2022 and 2023 runs in Basil Creek were virtually wiped out because there was not enough water for them to return and spawn.

By Seth Forward, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Comparing past sockeye populations in the Skeena watershed to their present-day counterparts may hold the key to preserving the species, according to an SFU postdoctoral fellow. 

Michael Price, who resides in Smithers, found in his Ph.D. research that a warming climate is making juvenile Skeena sockeye grow larger and is changing the habitats in which the young fish can thrive. 

Price found that small, warmer and more shallow lakes that juvenile sockeye used to thrive in are now becoming less suitable for the fish, with larger, deeper and colder lakes taking their place as the optimal habitat for sockeye to grow before they make the daunting trip to the ocean. 

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Rivers & Oceans

DFO plans more fishery closures under salmon management plan

By Kaitlyn Bailey,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Northern BC salmon management plan will take a precautionary approach to manage fisheries, including increased closures for the 2022-2023 year, stated a July 8 news release.

The Integrated Fisheries Management Plan report stated that environmental trends, including high river temperatures, suggest salmon productivity will be below average this year. Salmon productivity refers to the number of adult salmon produced per adult spawning fish.

As a result, key changes in the plan include extra closures throughout the northern Pacific region.

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Rivers & Oceans

Quadra Island Streamkeepers protect wild salmon

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With just a little bit of arm flailing and much nonchalance, Frank Gleeson regains his balance after slipping on a wet rock lodged in a steep embankment along Village Bay Creek.

Gleeson and his buddy, Pete Calverley, continue to clamber over and under trees, scramble up slopes and wade through underbrush in their search for spawning salmon.

Gleeson and Calverley, aged 71 and 78, descend into a clearing at the creek’s edge and excitedly point out about 45 chum salmon milling not far from shore.

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Rivers & Oceans

Pacific Salmon Explorer: tool to help protect BC salmon

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A groundbreaking online tool that illustrates the state of Pacific salmon across B.C. aims to help protect endangered populations and drive future conservation efforts. The Pacific Salmon Explorer is a public data-visualization site that people can use to see what types of salmon are returning to a given area and find available data on the health of the population and the cumulative habitat pressures the fish may be facing.

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Rivers & Oceans

Tsilhqot’in Leaders close all Salmon Fishery

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By Rebecca Dyok, The Williams Lake Tribune, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tsilhqot’in leaders say they have no choice but to close all salmon fishing within their territory west of Williams Lake due to “extreme conservation concern” over the state of sockeye and chinook runs.

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