Cowichan Chinook

[traveller]

Just a reminder, the meeting to find out about DFO's plans for rebuilding Cowichan Chinook is this coming Tuesday, April 29th, 7:00 Pm at the Cowichan Tribes Cultural Center, right next door to the new Casino. Lots of parking.

We need people letting DFO know this is important to them, so come and bring your friends.

 

[highlights]

This is our chance guys! Let'em hear us

 

[alley cat]

Will be there !

AL

 

[Hoochiebob]

bump!

 

[Knotty Seamen]

Bump.. Hope lots of people show..

 

[Knotty Seamen]

Not a bad turnout.. Counted 83 people there.

 

[OldBlackDog]

Did they have a great plan?

 

[Time]

Sheeeet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What day is it today?
Missed out due to internal confusion over what day it is/was.
Price you pay for being retired I guess.

Any chance of getting an update, would appreciate it.

Time - waits not for me.

 

[Rum Buddies]

it was pretty good I thought, not as depressing as last time.

Basically 2007 actually saw a small rise in returns(2500) with a target of 6000 I think.

They are increasing the water to the hatchery, tagging ALL chinook, some will get tracking devices that will let them track them as they travel over "listening wires" while alive, not just once a troller pics them up.

They are also feeding the fry like crazy to try and get them big enough to cope with bad ocean conditions. Some they are bulking up to 12 grams, where the usual is like 3 grams - most will be 6 grams I think?

They are hoping to gather 2.0million eggs this year, where they only had 200,000 last year. Returns are below 1% though.

They also hinted that they know where they fish are going in the straight of georgia, it just might be that there isn't enough feed to keep them alive in that area.

More stream work is being done, with a focus on the lower sections and estuary as it seems chinook spend most their time in this area as fry. More work is planned for the slide areas and upper spawning habitat.

There was more but I can't remember at the moment, plus I could have some things wrong, just going off the top of my head.

 

[alley cat]

I thought the target was 5500 but why quibble over 500 escapement ?
I got called away right after the presentations were done with and did not hear the rest of the table points , I did leave a note on my concerns over the exploding sea lion population on the inside here especially from Reid Island down and through the Sansum narrows regions , thinking to put it to them as a cull like the Puntledge system.
I found the several of the Lyaksum and other Chemainus tribes once had a very healthy hunt for seals and sea lions in the past for food purposes and it is apparent we have removed that predation control group from the picture with consequences.
Was very informative , looked for Time to be there but now I see why I couldn't find him.

Cheers

AL

 

[Time]

Thanks guys.
Sounds like progressive steps being made in the right direction.
Hopefully they will all be carried out.
Really po'ed at myself for missing it.

Poppa, curious about "They also hinted that they know where they fish are going in the straight of georgia, it just might be that there isn't enough feed to keep them alive in that area."
Any reasons for the food scarcity or which food is missing, i.e., krill, herring, or ?

Al, todays Citizen has part 2 of T.W. Paterson's recount of west coast sealing. Back in 1900 ought there were 65 sealing scooners based out of Victoria alone. The hunt ended by "international treaty". No idea why they did that. Perhaps the FN could resurrect it for this summers games, barbecued seal anyone?

 

[Knotty Seamen]

Poppa your numbers were a little off! The Target number was 6500 but her graph was way off LOL! We had 500,000 eggs last year and the survival was one percent.. Just clarifying for those who wanted the numbers. I'm not harping on ya poppa...

 

[knucklebuster]

b.b.q. seal ? It was brought up to a member of the band. He says that the seals are so full of PCBs ? that they can't eat them . This was the fella that runs the hatchery who told us that

 

[Rum Buddies]

ya I knew I'd get the numbers wrong - thanks for filling in the blanks.

Hey Time,

One guy was talking about how they are marking some fish with "transducers" that create a signal when they cross strategically placed wires.

He didn't go into because the data won't be fully in until sept. I believe.

Basically he said it seems that the cowichan chinook are staying together as a tight group for much longer then they previously thought. He hinted that they know where they seem to be going and there might not be enough resources in that area.

I might be reading too much into his statement, but krill was the first thing that came to my mind - or lack of it.

 

[Little Hawk]

Howdy,

Over all I thought the meeting was productive. Seems the Dead Fish Organization reps are getting a handle on the severity of the Cowichan Chinook situation. They also cited the Early Fraser & Clayquot(if memory serves) chinook's as other runs in trouble.

I haven't fished the Cowichan chinook's since about 80' or 81' and until I attended this meeting, knew very little about them. Turns out they return to spawn as 2, 3, and 4 yr/olds.

Go figure... 'well, what the hell, I've seen two good-years. Guess I'll head up the ole' river and check-out the chicks... then check-out."

I had no idea they were such an important part of the Georgia St. fishery. What's interesting is that in last five yrs. or so, they have discovered that at least part of the Cowichan run is migrating out off the WCVI where they were previously absent.

As Poppa mentioned, theres' significant restoration and ehancement intiatives in the works including adding more gravel to create a new spawing area up near the wier.

Because the fry are moving out into the bay so quickly, they are also looking at predation mortality from mergansers', grebes', cormorants etc.

As was also mentioned, escapement for 2007 was about 2400 fish. Historically, they've hit close to 20,000.

Wonder what all the fuss is about.

Cheers,
Terry

 

[Hyde-N-Seek]

quote:Originally posted by Little Hawk

Howdy,

Seems the Dead Fish Organization reps are getting a handle on the severity of the Cowichan Chinook situation.

Dead Fish Organization... ha ha haha haa....

That's the best line I read in a long time!!! I remembered that every fall I was looking forward to the Chinook fishery on the river. It was a blast with lots of hard fighting fish. Combat fishing on the pump house! Those days are long long gone! To bad

HS.