Tag Archives: Salmon on Skeena River

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. 

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

Alaskan commercial fishery ‘plundering’ threatened B.C. salmon

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Commercial fish harvesters in southeast Alaska are netting significant amounts of threatened B.C. salmon even though the bulk of Canada’s Pacific fleet is stranded on shore to conserve plummeting stocks, a new study suggests.

Some of B.C.’s largest salmon runs navigate the waters of the Alaskan Panhandle just north of B.C. as they return to Canadian rivers to spawn, said Greg Taylor, fisheries expert and one of the authors of a new technical report for the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust.

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Rivers & Oceans

Heiltsuk First Nation calling on DFO to close fisheries and salmon farms

North Island Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Heiltsuk First Nation from Bella Bella is calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada to order open-net salmon farms to close and to shut down commercial and recreational salmon fishing next year, only opening fisheries after “conservation and food, social, and ceremonial needs can be met.”

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

Opposition to the proposed LNG project on Lelu Island

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The Skeena River is one of the most productive salmon bearing rivers in British Columbia. Thousands of years before the first European colonists arrived, it was providing First Nations with food. A week ago, First Nations throughout the Skeena Watershed declared their opposition to the proposed LNG project on Lelu Island, grave lack of consultation and massive damage to salmon habitat.

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