Sooke 2020 Net Pen

[profisher]

SVIAC has just completed the 2020 Sooke Harbour Net Pen with the successful release of the 2nd batch of Chinook smolts from Nitinat Hatchery for a total of 650,000 this year. Glen Varney and his dedicated volunteers did an excellent job again this year with a very low mortality rate..even the fish did good too. lol Had to put some Covid humour in there. This project is the only net pen in the province this year and a portion of these fish are the only ones in the province to have wire coded tags implanted. All of this was once again done without government/taxpayer funds. However the current pandemic has created funding challenges because some of our generous and loyal corporate backers are themselves under extreme financial hardship this year. The local whale watching companies have been without revenues to date and visitor traffic for this summer is questionable at best. This means we have to rely on others to step up and fill this void. So for those of you who can offer financial support and who haven't to date...here is your opportunity to support a very worthy Chinook salmon recovery effort. I believe the project budget has an annual average cost of about $70,000.00. This includes moorage for the pen, food, Nitinat labour in collecting the eggs and caring for the fish, clipping and wire code tags, repairs to the net and pen and transport of the fish to Sooke. This summer will see the first brood of 4 year old Chinook return to the Sooke River from our initial out planting of 250,000. 100,000 of those fish were clipped and tagged. It is vital that we provide as many recovered tags as possible this summer to validate the pens success. Please turn in any hatchery marked Chinook heads this summer recovered from JDF Strait. I know DFO is making that difficult with the regs...but that only makes it even more important to get as many in as we can during the retention months.

 

[SpringVelocity]

Thanks Glen!!!

 

[wildmanyeah]

Did any 3 year old return last year??

 

[profisher]

Yes there were a few taken in fisheries and there were some that returned to the river.

 

[chris73]

Great job, guys. Goes to show what can be accomplished even under adverse circumstances if dedicated people get to work.

 

[profisher]

I just got some DFO catch stats from Glen. There were 23 of the net pen Chinook reported in catch reports in 2019. 22 were from the 2016 brood year and 1 from the 2017. Most were caught along the west side of VI from JDF strait to north coast of the Island. One was taken in Alaska, one in Washington and 3 were taken in northern BC. (2 in sport and 1 in comm troll)

 

[littlechucky]

I just got some DFO catch stats from Glen. There were 23 of the net pen Chinook reported in catch reports in 2019. 22 were from the 2016 brood year and 1 from the 2017. Most were caught along the west side of VI from JDF strait to north coast of the Island. One was taken in Alaska, one in Washington and 3 were taken in northern BC. (2 in sport and 1 in comm troll)

What was the tag rate? 10%

Using DFO voodoo extrapolations, how many net pen fish were caught?

 

[donnie d]

I just got some DFO catch stats from Glen. There were 23 of the net pen Chinook reported in catch reports in 2019. 22 were from the 2016 brood year and 1 from the 2017. Most were caught along the west side of VI from JDF strait to north coast of the Island. One was taken in Alaska, one in Washington and 3 were taken in northern BC. (2 in sport and 1 in comm troll)

quite a broad geographical footprint! Just curious what is the Nitnat Chinook typical migration pattern like?

Quite interesting...and man how valuable is that CWT data wow!

 

[Gear'n'beer!]

I volunteered this year as my work is pretty sporadic. From what I understood there were zero clipped or wire tagged fish. They are all otolith "marked" , not sure if marked is the right word for it but I'm not a scientist. I got that info straight from Glen and the hatchery guys. I was also told that there has been a clipping machine purchased but it's tied up in bureaucracy somewhere......shocking I know.

I agree all hatch heads should be turned in but I'm not sure you will get any data from this years fish unfortunately.

Darin

 

[profisher]

100,000 were clipped and marked...I know that for a fact because we paid to have it done. all have the otolith mark so they can be differentiated from the Sooke Enhancement raised fish.

 

[Gear'n'beer!]

Awesome Rollie, thanks for the clarification. I was there for the last couple deliveries so the clipped and cwt fish must have come in the first wave. Good to know.

Darin