Somas Sockeye Bulletin

SOMASS SOCKEYE BULLETIN # 3 – 2020 Date: June 11, 2020

Somass Sockeye Stock Assessment Update

Pre-season forecast: Somass (Great Central and Sproat) – 169,000 Henderson Lake sockeye outlook < 15,000

Escapement to June 10: Stamp: 1,030 Sproat: 7,219 Total: 8,249

Test Fishery: Seine vessel Nita Maria testing June 7th - 8th estimated 3,000 inside 10 Mile Point and 9,000 outside.

First in-season re-forecast: June 25th

Catch Estimate: 211 Somass First Nations – 0 Maa-nulth First Nations – 0 Area D Gillnet – 0 Area B Seine - 0 Recreational – 0 Test Fishery - 211

NEXT WEEK’S FISHING PLANS:

All Fishing plans are subject to change depending on weekly meetings.

First Nations

Hupacasath & Tseshaht – Sockeye FSC closed, EO - closed.

Maa-nulth – Sockeye Treaty closed

Commercial

Area D Gillnet – closed.

Area B Seine – closed.

Recreational

Sockeye closed

New Measures

Due to lower than expected escapement of Sockeye the following areas are closed to all sectors for fishing for finfish effective 00:01h June 4, 2020 until midnight July 14, 2020:

Portions of subarea 23-1 and subarea 23-2 from the tidal boundary signs at Paper Mill Dam in the Somass River then downstream south into the Inlet to Hocking Point light. Portions of the Freshwater section of the Somass River Region 1 from Somass Park to Paper Mill Dam.

See Fishery Notices links below.
FN 506 Finfish Closure upper Alberni Inlet
FN 505 Portion of the freshwater section of the Somass River closed to fishing for salmon

The above management measures may change on short notice depending on in-season information.

For more info please call the Port Alberni DFO office at 250 720 4440
 
South Coast Salmon Bulletin
16 June 2020 Escapement Update
Sockeye—Area 23 Somass River

ESCAPEMENT ESTIMATES

The total adult sockeye escapement to the Somass system is estimated at 13,127 adults through Sunday, 14 June.

For 2020 fishery management purposes, the Area 23 round table agreed to begin fisheries in the “critical” zone for early season harvest management, using a management forecast of 168,788 adult sockeye. No harvest is available at this run size. The first in-season re-forecast is expected on 25 June.

The combined Somass expected escapement is the predicted run of 168,788 adults. The stock-specific escapement targets below are based on the predicted proportion of Somass returns generated by the best performing forecast—the sibling model (23% Great Central Lake, 77% Sproat Lake).

DAILY ESCAPEMENT COUNTS

Since 9 June, daily counts ranged from 121–373 adults through the Stamp Falls fishway and from 572–1144 adults through the Sproat fishway.

RIVER CONDITIONS

Hydromet stations, located at both the Sproat River and Stamp Falls fishways, collect data on environmental conditions—air and water temperatures, barometric pressure, rainfall, and water depth. Current data are available here.

Daily river temperatures over the week of 9–16 June 2020 ranged from 17.3–18.5℃ (average: 17.9℃) at the Sproat River fishway (Figure 6) and from 14.2–16.9℃ (average: 15.5℃) at the Stamp Falls fishway (Figure 7).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Escapement objectives

 Fisheries targeting Somass (Great Central Lake and Sproat Lake) sockeye are managed with a variable harvest rate strategy. The allowable harvest rate increases with abundance from 15% at run sizes of 200,000 (the lower fishery reference point) to a maximum of 70% at run sizes greater than 1.5 million.

 The optimal spawning escapement target for production is considered about 350,000 adults (200,000 and 150,000 for Great Central Lake and Sproat Lake, respectively). However, for stock evaluation purposes the escapement target increases with run size so that the allowable exploitation rate never exceeds 70%.

 The combined Somass escapement target at the sub-170,000 run size is up to 170,000 spawners. The stock-specific escapement targets (Great Central = 38,821; Sproat = 129,967) are based on the current year’s sibling forecast model for stock composition: 23% Great Central Lake and 77% Sproat Lake.

Biological benchmarks

 Biological benchmarks are used to assess the conservation status of salmon conservation units (CUs). CUs below the lower biological benchmark are considered at risk of extirpation. CUs above the upper biological benchmark are considered healthy.

 For the Great Central Lake CU, the lower and upper abundance benchmarks are 30,000 and 90,000 spawners, respectively. For the Sproat Lake CU, the lower and upper abundance benchmarks are 12,000 and 65,000 spawners, respectively.

 Note: to achieve production objectives associated with Somass stocks, the fishery reference points and the corresponding escapement targets under the Somass sockeye management plan are higher than these biological reference points for the Somass CUs.

Overview of escapement monitoring program

Fish counting operations on the Somass river system are run by the Hupačasath First Nation in cooperation with DFO. The objective of the program is to estimate escapement of sockeye, Chinook, and coho using video counts from the Sproat and Stamp Falls fishways. Counting operations began on 15 and 28 April at the Sproat and Stamp Falls fishways, respectively.

Fish passing through all fishways are recorded 24 hours per day (tunnels are illuminated at night) using a video monitoring system. Trained and experienced observers review migration on the recordings from both sites to estimate escapement into each system. For most time periods, observers typically review all 60 minutes of each hour. During periods of high migration, observers review clips varying from 5–30-minutes from each hour of video footage depending on fish density. Counts from these shortened clips are then expanded to estimate hourly totals.

Observers identify fish to species and estimate the proportion of marked (e.g. adipose-fin-clipped) fish. Biological samples are collected from sockeye 2–3 times per week from fish at both counting sites to estimate the age and sex composition of escapement. The age results from biosampling are applied to total escapement numbers to more accurately estimate daily adult and jack escapements.

Information produced in partnership between Hupačasath First Nation and Fisheries and Oceans Canada

For more information contact: Nick Brown, WCVI Salmon Stock Assessment Biologist
Cell (778) 700-1687, e-mail: Nicholas.Brown@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
 
SOMASS SOCKEYE BULLETIN # 4 – 2020 Date: June 18, 2020
For more info please call the Port Alberni DFO office at 250 720 4440

Somass Sockeye Stock Assessment Update

Pre-season forecast: Somass (Great Central and Sproat) – 169,000 Henderson Lake Sockeye outlook < 15,000

Escapement to June 17: Stamp: 3,881 Sproat: 15,758 Total: 18,639

Test Fishery: Seine vessel Nita Maria testing June 14th - 15th estimated 8,500 inside 10 Mile Point and 7,500 outside. First in-season re-forecast: June 25th

Catch Estimate: 538 Somass First Nations – 0 Maa-nulth First Nations – 0 Area D Gillnet – 0 Area B Seine - 0 Recreational – 0 Test Fishery - 538

NEXT WEEK’S FISHING PLANS:

All Fishing plans are subject to change depending on weekly meetings.

First Nations

Hupacasath & Tseshaht – Sockeye FSC closed, EO - closed.
Maa-nulth – Sockeye Treaty closed

Commercial

Area D Gillnet – closed.
Area B Seine – closed.

Recreational

Sockeye closed
 
This year: To me it looks slightly better than last year, And a positive perhaps for next year is there is more jacks this year then last.

upload_2020-6-23_12-29-21.png

Last year:

upload_2020-6-23_12-29-50.png
 
Just got back from walking the sproat, the cams can be pretty deceptive there are fishing going through but still very few schooled up anywhere. Walked stamp falls yesterday and the same thing going through but very few schooled up in the canyon and falls pool. The amount of jacks is alarming probably at least 50 percent jacks which I have never seem before and is something I noticed last year with the springs returning more jacks than I have ever seen before no where near as many as with these socks but still way above average for this system.
 
Looking at the test fishery data, This years test fishery has already caught as many sockeye as all of last year.
 
We saw jumpers all the way from Hocking to Clutesi today at 10am. Nice to see! Here's hoping for the future.
 
Looking at the test fishing data I would be surprised if they don’t open sockeye soon.
 
Look for the Fishery Notice - July 1, 2 per day. Still a wrinkle or 2 to iron out before the FN gets posted.

Closely monitor and if current trend continues it will stay open. At moment there are 90+ K in the river now and good mix of Great Central Lake. Strong in-river migration, so it would appear we will crack 100K in a few days. Current test fishing data suggests run size of 250K, possibly more. Fishing plans are for limited numbers of removals in keeping with pre-defined fishing plans based on stock strength.
 
wanna share with us the juicy details of what happened? I read the table was locked up on Facebook
 
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