2009 Salmon Returns

[Charter Tofino]

Thanks alot CL!

Like chris said, those are some really odd numbers.Good to hear the chinook were good but jesus 5400 fish given to FN?Did i read that correctly?! Walked all around the little q on sat.Followed the entire spawning channel counting coho and saw maybe 25 [xx(] but lots of chum. Unreal how the big q only has 4500 and the little q 22,000.

I was a little suprised/disappointed when i saw the little q had opened for springs this year.In that tiny system they stack so tight it was likely turned into a gongshow with people flossing/snagging.I guess if the numbers are there though...

 

[cletus]

quote:Originally posted by chris73

Thanks CL. I badly wanted some info on the Q's. But the results are weird at best: chinook seem good for both systems - that leaves the Cowichan and Goldstream chinooks the only two ECVI systems with really terrible chinooks returns while all the other ECVI systems had good or ok chinook returns. But in turn Coho is good or excellent for most systems across the BC coast except for mid/southern ECVI systems. What do we make out of that?

Anybody have any numbers for the nanaimo and chemainus rivers,last i heard it was another dismal year for these ECVI rivers.

 

[chris73]

Sorry no numbers here either from Nanaimo and Chem - maybe I find time to call the hatchery tomorrow. But I have heard second hand that the numbers were low as expected - so let's say no positive surprise. I guess when you start from 3 couple few years ago you cannot expect to rebuild very quickly - unfortunately. That's the lesson we all should learn and get - once they are gone it will be a huge and lengthy undertaking to bring them back. Rather smarten up before it's too late.

Poppa, the only conclusion from those inconsistent returns I can draw is that there is no global issue at play with this year's return as this would have impacted all stocks - or at least a similar bunch. Here is something more specific and targeted at play that only affects the mentioned runs and species. Maybe: a concentrated commercial take? Riversystem specific issues like the water quality issue at Cowichan hatchery? Definitely human impact and therefore in DFO's shoes.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Here is part of what you want Chris .. Figures at the Nanimo hatchery until the end of the month

[quoteNanaimo River Update Oct. 2009

River Swim Enumeration (Oct. 13)
Cn Adults 448
Jacks 199

Coho 356
Jacks 106

Chum 8163

Pinks 45K Not a final # on Pinks

Eggtake Data
Pink Females collected 1116
Males collected 1098

# of eggs taken 1,229,020
females spawned 941

Fallrun Cn Females collected 29
Males collected 25
Jacks collected 23

# of eggs to date 129,002
Females spawned 27
Egg target 450K
Summer Females collected 69
Run Cn Males collected 94
Jacks 2

# of eggs to date 255,409
Females spawned 59
Egg target 250K

Coho Not starting Coho until beginning of November
Egg target 250K

Chum Will start Chum on October 26.




][/quote]

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[chris73]

Thanks CL. Interesting data. Seems that the Nanaimo summer run Chinook were ok but the fall run not looking very good. Having said that, it surprises me that the hatchery was not able to get more fall run chinook broodstock even though the swim count indicated that there were more fish in the system. They should have been a little more agressive collecting brood stock I think and they could have had all the 450k eggs they needed - you only need 150 fish for this. But even though not great for this river at least it is not as bad as Cowichan or Goldstream. What is really disturbing is the low numbers of Coho. Hopefully there will be a late push. Again, those numbers confirm: Cowichan and Goldstream pretty much the only ECVI streams with catastrophic chinook returns. WHY?

 

[Cuba Libre]

Hey Chris.. I know that some guys from the area plan on demanding answers at the next South Coast SFAB meeting. Hopefully there will be a decent plan forthcoming for those stocks.

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Shermanater]

quote:Originally posted by chris73

Thanks CL. Interesting data. Seems that the Nanaimo summer run Chinook were ok but the fall run not looking very good. Having said that, it surprises me that the hatchery was not able to get more fall run chinook broodstock even though the swim count indicated that there were more fish in the system. They should have been a little more agressive collecting brood stock I think and they could have had all the 450k eggs they needed - you only need 150 fish for this. But even though not great for this river at least it is not as bad as Cowichan or Goldstream. What is really disturbing is the low numbers of Coho. Hopefully there will be a late push. Again, those numbers confirm: Cowichan and Goldstream pretty much the only ECVI streams with catastrophic chinook returns. WHY?

Chris73 I guess working 16 hour days for the first 2 weeks of october isn't "Agressive" enough for you? I work at the hatchery and we busted our buts trying to get all our chinook brood. The numbers posted were from early october and are not our final #'s. Mother nature was not on our side with extremely low water and high temperatures making it impossibe to collect early chinook. Yes the swim counts show chinook in river but they were in areas that we cannot get to. FYI we did fall a little short of our fall run target but still managed to collect 382,881 green eggs.

Please do not insult our efforts without knowledge of what we actually do.

 

[searun]

Thanks Sherm for setting the record straight. Sometimes we can get carried away thinking more is possible without getting the full info on barriers encountered.

 

[chris73]

No insult intended Shermanater. I know first hand what hatchery work means and how hard people work there, believe me. You are right - I know very little about the specific circumstances on the Nanaimo and I want to apologize if I came across as rude. Just concerned about the salmon and trying to piece together a picture from the little info available to the public. Maybe you guys could send out more info about what's going on with the Nanaimo and its problems and we all would be better informed?

 

[rico]

just curious smiley, but why would they truck them up there?If they spawn there, but cant get there on their own, how are their offspring going to get back? Really cool for them to be there though.

 

[sundance]

quote:Originally posted by rico

just curious smiley, but why would they truck them up there?If they spawn there, but cant get there on their own, how are their offspring going to get back? Really cool for them to be there though.

 

[sundance]

the goldstream hatchery about 10 ys ago put fry up shawnigan creek at cameron,taggert rd to start a run of coho to return to the creek,they migrate over the falls ,with no problem ,on return they swim in to a holding shed at the base of the falls ,then loaded in to a tote and hauled up the rockface [7 at a time to tank trailer 30 at a time up to cameron rd ,up to date this year 640 have been taken up there ,as is a great creek with lots of spawning area,some years it has got the goldstream hatchery help to keep us going ,the locals do the labour intensive work with help from our hatchery as well ,we did try chinook but seals ruined that for a while ,but coho returns are awesome !

 

[sundance]

chris how is your coho count on the colquitz to date! we have up to today 240 coho thru the trap with brood stock taken to the hatchery,had the trapper in ,so far 1 mink /1 otter ,millstream has had 100 go thru the camara [up the fish ladder] with 3 otters getting their share [trappers next stop] [the above 240 is from the craigflower trap above portage inlet ,gorge water way!

 

[chris73]

It can, smiley. However, our short coastal streams inherently deal with huge seasonal flow fluctuations and nature have seemed to adapt to this to a certain (natural) degree. Trouble is where man has made it worse to beyond their tolerance level (high water: increased runoff due to storm sewer discharge and lack of runoff detention etc., low water: water extraction or diversion in the summer). By looking at some of the news pictures from the Puntledge etc. last weekend, you can bet that quite a few salmon eggs were dug up and washed down the channel...

 

[Pablo2079]

Just got off the phone with Bob at the Sunshine Coast Hatchery (Chapman Creek, Sechelt).

Here are the unofficial returns to the hatchery:

Pink - 7500
Coho - 1500
Chinook - 90-100

The Chinook historically are at about 500-600, so the return is lower than normal... similar to other inside hatcheries.

They also have about 1.8 million Chum eggs in their incubators right now.... Chapman Creek itself doesn't get a big Chum return, but the stock is from returns to Porpoise Bay.


http://www.scsalmon.org/