Low snowpack could be ‘disastrous’ for salmon, scientist says

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-burning-through-wildfire-budget-1.3122653

B.C. burning through wildfire budget

B.C. Wildfire Management Branch has already spent $52.5 million of its $63 million budget for this year

CBC News Posted: Jun 22, 2015 8:17 AM PT| Last Updated: Jun 22, 2015 8:37 AM PT

Firefighter Jake Sparks pauses for a moment at the Smith Creek fire near West Kelowna, B.C., in July 2014, one of the worst fire seasons on record for the province. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

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■Brush fire at Grouse Mountain highlights wildfire risk http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...e-mountain-highlights-wildfire-risk-1.3103228

Lightning strikes during hot dry conditions this spring have sparked enough fires to burn through more than 80 per cent of the cash set aside to fight wildfires in B.C. this year.

The B.C. Wildfire Management Branch has already spent $52.5 million of its $63 million budget for this year, said fire information officer Ryan Turcot.

In total firefighters have responded to nearly 500 fires already this year, about half of which were lightning-caused and half of which were human-caused, he said.

"The total number of fires responded to this year is a little bit above average, but the increase we're seeing is entirely due to an abnormally high amount of lightning caused fires."

Over 60,000 hectares have burned to date, well above the 10-year average of 16,327 hectares, he said.

"But it is worth noting that over 43,000 of this year's hectares burned are just due to two fires: Little Bobtail Lake fire, as well as the Dunedin fire up in the far north."

■More updates on wildfires in B.C. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/topic/Tag/B.C. wildfires
■Knox Mountain fire: evacuation alert lifted in Kelowna http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...-evacuation-alert-lifted-in-kelowna-1.3122492
■Elaho Valley wildfire likely to grow http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...with-hot-dry-conditions-in-forecast-1.3122171
■Wildfire burning west of Nanaimo http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wildfire-burning-west-of-nanaimo-1.3121845

In previous years when wildfires have required more than the budgeted amount, the provincial government has drawn cash from its contingency fund to cover the extra expenses.

That is what happened in 2014, the third worst season on record, when 1,424 fires consumed more than 359,000 hectares, costing the government $293 million in firefighting efforts.

The worst two B.C. fire seasons recorded were 1958 when fires burned 859,000 hectares and 1961 when 483,000 hectares of land was burned.

Little Bobtail Lake Fire
The Little Bobtail Lake fire burned through 25,569 hectares of land before it was contained earlier this year. (B.C. Wildfire Management Branch)
 
I don't want to get into this again but in 2011 or 12 the DFO wanted to shut down the Fraser River fishery due to low and high temperature water in the Fraser canyon. I spent the time to do the research and looked at 2010 with the largest sockeye run in 50 years. I looked back at 2006 and found that the water temperature was at its highest in years, maybe a record! (Can't remember) and it also was super low with poor run off. Well it didn't make sense why did we have such an large return 4 years later.... Well , maybe we need low warm water to have the fish turn quicker and spawn before they die due to parasites or pollution... Well all that's happening today with low warm water and the huge Algae bloom off the west coast it will be interesting what we see 4 years from now.

R
 
I'm not that well informed on FR sockeye but my understanding is that increasing river temp is a bad thing for salmon in general. I did run across this paper and thought it was interesting and offers a glimmer of hope for some FR sockeye runs.

http://www.researchgate.net/profile...opulations/links/0046351dfc4074e004000000.pdf

Don't know if the current algae bloom is the same kind that was reported to of helped the 2010 FR sockeye run. One could hope....
 
GLG said:
I'm not that well informed on FR sockeye but my understanding is that increasing river temp is a bad thing for salmon in general. I did run across this paper and thought it was interesting and offers a glimmer of hope for some FR sockeye runs.

http://www.researchgate.net/profile...opulations/links/0046351dfc4074e004000000.pdf

Don't know if the current algae bloom is the same kind that was reported to of helped the 2010 FR sockeye run. One could hope....
Click to expand...

The 2010 and 2014 large sockeye stocks were mainly comprised of later run Shuswap system components, mainly the Adams River. These fish are generally not subjected to warmer Fraser River temperatures as they (normally) migrate later, avoiding thermal stress. The Fraser River stocks most affected by warm water are the early and mid summer stocks, ie, Early Stuart, Bowron, Nadina ,Raft, Horsefly, and Mitchell. Plus many much smaller stocks like Momich, Cayenne, Gates, Upper Adams, etc.
Chilko sockeye are the purebreds of the upper Fraser sockeye world … they just keep on recruiting.

You will be hearing much more from these particular authors, all part of the brilliant Hinch/Farrell fisheries research lab from UBC.
 
2011 and 2012 were very high water years in the Fraser. Summer high water temperatures and/or high Fraser River discharge (June and July) are notoriously known as pretty severe bottlenecks for Early Stuart Sockeye. Getting through Hells Gate can be pretty rough on them. This was the case in 2011 where the Early Stuarts got the crap kicked out of them by very high Fraser River discharge. Arrival on the spawning grounds that year for Early Stuart Sockeye was 2 to 3 weeks later than normal. Spawning success was below average for Early Stuarts in 2011, but that number has to taken with a grain of salt due to the very limited availability to carcasses. When you have such low numbers there is increased competition from predators like bears so you are lucky to get a carcass to sample, especially if you visit a stream only once every week or 4 days. Bears usually win during these situations. If you only have half of a female carcass because the other half was munched on by one of many bears it is often not straightforward to determine spawning success, so just because you have low spawning success doesn’t necessarily mean that pre-spawn was a big problem. That’s why one has to consider the availability of carcasses when there is low spawning success. Lakes can be another problem for carcass availability.

Freshwater residency is only part of their life history. Marine survival for the offspring of the 2006 brood was more than likely very exceptional. The 2008 outmigrants (from the 2006 brood) had good growing conditions if you look at the State of the Ocean reports during that time period. Cooler water temperatures were predominant in the eastern Pacific (in stark contrast to now). Combine that with no commercial fishery openings and it was making of the perfect storm. As Dave mentioned, the Late South Thompson made up the majority of the 2010 Fraser Sockeye return. Adams Sockeye typically hold out at the mouth of the Fraser for about 2-3 weeks before heading upstream; however, in past years (mid to late 90s) they were entering earlier than normal, residing longer in freshwater, accumulating more thermal units and parasites and suffering high prespawn mortality. This holding out in the ocean is thought to be timed with decreasing water temperatures - making migration easier on them.

Chilko Sockeye are generally smaller in size when compared to most other Fraser Sockeye like Adams or Upper Pitt. Their small, torpedo-shaped body makes them all-star athletes of Fraser Sockeye (along with the Early Stuarts). For Chilko Sockeye is not just the distance but the elevation gain from sea level to Chilko River and Lake – the biggest difference in elevation amongst all Fraser Sockeye CUs. Although most Fraser Sockeye typically migrate close to the banks to save energy, this is especially true for Chilko Sockeye.

Toxic algae blooms were one of the factors listed during the Cohen Inquiry has a potential cause of Fraser Sockeye declines.
http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/resources/1288805500.pdf

This recent bloom is not like what was thought to have helped the 2008 outmigrants (2010 brood). One fear (as posted I see) now is that zooplankton that is not as nutritious from the southern waters is replacing the more nutritious types that Fraser Sockeye normally feed on in the marine environment here in the North Pacific. Right now the ocean off our coast is very stratified with warmer water on top. This is preventing mixing from occurring which is vital for bringing nutrients at depth to the surface for plankton to use. This is sort of analogous to the thermocline that develops in freshwater lakes during the summer where there is a separation between warm water at the surface and cooler water immediately below. It is not certain if Sockeye would be able to avoid this warmer water or not. I guess we will just have to find out. It could be the perfect storm in the other (bad) direction this year with a warm marine environment and a potentially warm freshwater environment combined with low water levels.
 
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http://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2015/june/061815.asp

Higher water temperatures primary cause of early spring Chinook mortality

June 18, 2015

CLACKAMAS, Ore. – Elevated water temperatures are most likely the cause of spring Chinook salmon deaths in the Willamette River and some of its tributaries, according to fish biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Spring Chinook salmon typically die in the fall after they have spawned. However, some also die before they are able to spawn as the result of stress, disease, and predation. This year, Chinook are dying earlier than usual, according to Tom Friesen, manager of ODFW’s Upper Willamette Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Program.

ODFW biologists and survey crews have observed unusually large numbers of spring Chinook salmon carcasses in the Willamette, Clackamas, and Santiam rivers recently.

“Pre-spawning mortality is normal and happens every year to some extent,” said Friesen. “But usually we don’t see dead spring Chinook in the mainstem Willamette until mid-summer.”

ODFW biologists say that high water temperatures likely contributed to the death of the fish.

Chinook salmon are more prone to disease, injury, and stress when water temperatures exceed 60° F. At 70°, the fish start to get into real trouble.

For the past week, water temperatures in the Willamette River have risen steadily, from 70° to 74° F. During the same period, Clackamas River water temperatures rose from 62° to 64° while the Santiam rose from 62° to 66°.

“We get concerned about the impact on Chinook anytime water temperatures approach 70 degrees,” said Friesen.

If forecast drought conditions and elevated water temperatures persist, some spring Chinook will likely continue to die before they have a chance to spawn, especially in the mainstem Willamette and lower portions of tributaries.

The good news is that the Willamette basin is experiencing one of the strongest spring Chinook salmon returns in years. Through, June 13, more than 51,000 Chinook had passed upstream through ODFW’s fish counting station at Willamette Falls, exceeding the 50-year average of 41,000 Chinook.

“Fortunately, many of this year’s spring Chinook have already entered the tributaries, which should help ensure their survival,” Friesen said.

Despite higher than normal water temperatures, most of the region’s hatcheries are doing well and are on track to meet their brood stock needs, according to Manny Farinas, ODFW’s North Hatchery Group coordinator.

“Throughout the region our hatcheries have been experiencing higher water temperatures earlier in the season,” added John Thorpe, ODFW’s Willamette South Hatchery Group coordinator. “We had planned for this and have successfully adjusted fish husbandry practices to respond.”
 
http://globalnews.ca/news/2074554/lower-flow-levels-on-cowichan-river-raising-concern/

Lower flow levels on Cowichan River raising concern

Capture By Justin McElroy
Web Producer Global News

Play Video

WATCH: Vancouver Island is in the middle of a “level three” drought, the second-highest on the scale. Kylie Stanton reports.

Joe Saysell has lived next to the Cowichan River for all of his 66 years, and he’s never seen it this low in June.

“Not even close,” he says.

“This is still June. We’ve got July, August and September to go through.”

Global News
The unrelenting warm weather is cause for concern all over British Columbia. But in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley, which has been on drought level 3 for weeks, the issues stemming from the lack of rain are particularly acute.

READ MORE: Warmer temperatures in Metro Vancouver could last well into 2016

In addition to maintaining a steady stream for the fish, the Cowichan River provides water for a paper mill in Crofton. But that delicate balance could soon become unsustainable. The river, which usually has a flow of seven cubic metres per second, is at at 5.5 at the moment. Earlier this week, the river forecast centre said the flow was at 25 per cent of the median level for this time of year, and issued a low streamflow advisory.

Saysell and local politicians are advocating for raising the weir that stores water in Cowichan Lake.

“We have to continue to work on raising the weir. Our only real tool at this point in time is having more water stored to control that release,” says Jon Lefebure, Mayor of North Cowichan.

He believes that a raised weir would ensure less water overflows from the lake during the winter, allowing for more of it to be dispensed to the river in the summer.

To date, the provincial government hasn’t committed to funding any renovations to raise it. Which means people like Saysell will continue to watch the river – and worry.

“We’re going to run out of water,” he says.

“Maybe it’s going to take a catastrophe for people to wake up and revolt and say ‘enough is enough.'”
 

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/dry-d...ces-for-hot-and-hard-growing-summer-1.3126964

Dry, dry Western Canada braces for hot and hard-growing summer

Crops falling to driest spring on Prairies in 68 years: heat waves forecast through to September

By Carolyn Dunn, CBC News Posted: Jun 25, 2015 11:00 AM ET| Last Updated: Jun 25, 2015 3:02 PM ET

Farmer Kent Erickson shows a tiny canola plant that has failed to grow in extreme dry conditions. Ideally canola is in full vegetation and starting to flower by the end of June. (Carolyn Dunn/CBC)

Water desalination plant reactivated 1:57

Photo of Carolyn Dunn

Carolyn Dunn
National reporter

Carolyn Dunn is a longtime national reporter for CBC News. Her Canadian postings and assignments have taken her from St. John's to Calgary. She has reported extensively abroad including East, West and North Africa and has done several tours in Afghanistan. She is currently based in Calgary.

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There's a crunch under Kent Erickson's shoes as he walks onto his canola fields in Irma, Alta., 175 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. You can practically hear the dry with every footstep.
■California drought could come to B.C., professor says
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He stops and kicks the dirt to demonstrate how little rain has fallen this month. "We're at roughly an inch of moisture when we're normally at five to six inches of moisture," he says.

Kent Erickson
Farmer Kent Erickson also serves on the board of the Alberta Wheat Commission. (Carolyn Dunn/CBC)

He picks one of the tiniest canola plants out of the dusty earth. Thin roots and tiny leaves tell the story.

"We want that crop really bushy and with as much vegetation as possible," Erickson, a farmer who serves on the board of the Alberta Wheat Commission told CBC News. "You look around today, and there's not a lot of vegetation."

Only a scattered few plants are leafy and beginning to flower. As far as the eye can see, there is brown between the rows of undergrown canola crops. Erickson's wheat crop across a dusty gravel road may not be faring much better.


'They can't deal with these kind of weird, wild, and wacky kind of changes.'
- Climatologist David Phillips
The stressed, failing crops are falling victim to the driest spring on the Prairies in the 68 years of national record-keeping.

"June is typically the wet month, the month where crops are growing feverishly, and it just hasn't happened," said David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist, in Barrie, Ont. "So people are using the D-words: dryness, drought, no question about it."

Compounding the problem is that the dry spring came on the heels of one of the warmest, driest winters, particularly in parts of British Columbia and Alberta.

These dry conditions are a stark contrast to a wet spring last year and the heavy rains and run-off from melting snow pack in the Rocky Mountains that led to damaging floods in Alberta in 2013.

Canola Field
A stressed canola field near Irma, Alberta. A record dry spring has given crops across Western Canada a failing start. (Carolyn Dunn/CBC )

The wild swings in weather have even inspired a new term in climate circles called "weather whiplash," Phillips said.

"It has been one extreme to another, and it has been a tremendous challenge for farmers, ranchers and growers. They can't deal with these kind of weird, wild, and wacky kind of changes."

But it's the long-term forecast that is even more worrying for the immediate future. It predicts more dry conditions coupled with heat waves through to September.


'It would be lovely to wake up in the morning to a nice soaking rain.'
- Kent Erickson
Temperatures are expected to be six to 11 degrees higher than average in most of Western Canada.

British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, western Manitoba and parts of Yukon and Northwest Territories can all expect areas of extreme dryness or drought if that forecast holds.

Erickson knows that unless there are some timely rains, heat will slowly bake his crops, dramatically reducing the yield of some and destroying others.

"It would be lovely to wake up in the morning to a nice soaking rain," he said. "That's what this area needs for our pasture, for our crops."

Instead, the forecast is for more heat and more sunshine that will inevitably dry up profits for farmers across Western Canada.

"I just hope the weather man is wrong," Erickson said with a knowing shrug. "There's one thing that you can't control in farming, and that's the weather."
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...s-as-temperature-in-b-c-rivers-rise-1.3134240

Sport fishing ban urged by conservationists as temperature in B.C. rivers rise

Low water flows and high temperatures affect fish survival rates

By B.C. Almanac, CBC News Posted: Jun 30, 2015 7:02 PM PT| Last Updated: Jun 30, 2015 7:02 PM PT

Conservationists and anglers are calling for a ban on sport fishing this season in response to the impact the heat is having on water temperatures and fish in B.C.

Drought-stressed streams impacting B.C. fish 23:42

Conservationists, First Nations and angling associations are calling for sport fishing restrictions as the prolonged heat wave and drought in B.C. spike temperature in rivers and lower water levels.

The Cowichan River on Vancouver Island has become so depleted, the Cowichan Tribes have closed it to fishing by its members.

The group The Friends of the Cowichan River is also calling on the province to restrict sport fishing to protect trout, steelhead, and salmon. The province, however, has yet to respond.

Pat George, who chairs the conservation committee for the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association, says oxygen levels go down when river levels are lowered. Reduced levels and the heat lead fish to try and survive by going into deeper, cooler pools.

The fish are already so stressed out that when anglers target them at the pools, they don't survive after being released, George said.

"A lot of anglers don't realize it, with the equipment we've got today for fishing, they have a tendency to play the fish too long, and if they release the fish, it really stresses out the fish and the mortality rate just increases," he told B.C. Almanac.

Scott Hinch, a professor of fisheries conservation at the Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Laboratory at UBC, expects temperatures will continue to rise over the summer.

The Fraser River, for example, could peak at 19 or 20 degrees, and that, plus low flows, could impact whether spawners could get to spawning grounds, he said.

"By the time you get to 20 degrees, many [fish] are suffering mortality because they're either suffering from low energy reserves — because they have to work a lot harder when temperatures are higher and they have a finite amount of energy they're bringing with them," he said.

"We also see a prevalence of diseases taking over at these higher temperatures, and just generally, physiological stress kicks in, and that exacerbates these other things, so a lot of the work we've done shows that when you get those temperatures, these fish don't do so well in terms of their return migration."

Listen to the full interview: Drought-stressed streams impacting B.C. fish http://www.cbc.ca/news/drought-stressed-streams-impacting-b-c-fish-1.3134269
 
This photo, by Jason Kapalka, was taken just a few hours ago near Sproat Lake. This wildfire, suspected to be human-caused, is about five hectares and growing in size. Nearby cabin owners and tenants are being evacuated. It's time to take the dry conditions very, very seriously, even here in the Fog Zone. To learn more about the fire, click on this link: http://bcwildfire.ca/hprscripts/wildfirenews/OneFire.asp?ID=543
 

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Wildfires of Note

Kamloops Fire Centre
• 24 km Ashnola Rd
• Cisco Road
• E of Parky Mountain
• Huckleberry
• Newby Lake
• Venables Valley

Southeast Fire Centre
• East of Lake Koocanusa
• Harrogate
• Sitkum Creek

Coastal Fire Centre
• Boulder Creek
• Dog Mountain
• Elaho
• Old Sechelt Mine
• Tsulquate River

Prince George Fire Centre
• Akue Creek wildfire
• Little Bobtail Lake Fire
• Mount Bigfoot Fire
• Petitot River Fire
 

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