Wild somass chinooks are "stocks of concern" 2011

[PurgedTT]

The survival of wild chinook salmon stocks in the Somass River system loomed large at a Thursday meeting of a stakeholder group meeting to discuss the Barkley Alberni Wild Salmon Initiative.

Officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada met with representatives of the commercial and sport fishing sectors to present the management plan for the 2011 Somass River chinook run.

Recreational fisheries manager Bill Shaw advised that 47,000 fish are expected to return, with an escapement target of 32,500 fish.

"We will re-allocate the surplus after Labour Day. Recreational [fishery] has priority. That's our policy, we go with that," Shaw said. "We're allocating 8,000 [fish] to recreational, then we split up the balance between First Nations and the commercial."

Sport fishing representative Bob Cole pointed out that in 2010, the DFO allocation was 7,000, but the sport fleet only intercepted 1,200.

"To have a truly viable fishery, we need to catch 5,000 fish," Cole said, adding that when chinook catches are lower than expected, it has a negative effect on pres-ent and future tourism.

"We've assigned fish to the hooks, but if they're not biting, well, there are no guarantees in life other than death and taxes," Shaw observed.

According to DFO statistics, the proportion of those 47,000 chinooks that are expected to return are overwhelmingly enhanced fish from Robertson Creek Hatchery, despite estimates that over 50 million chinook eggs are deposited into the gravel within the Somass River system, according to Wilf Luedke of DFO's stock assessment division.

"Those 50 million eggs result in about five million fry coming out of the gravel, and we don't know how many of those fry mature into smolts, or how many migrate to the ocean," Luedke said.

By contrast, the hatchery harvests seven million eggs, with minimal mortality.

Omega Pacific Hatchery manager Carol Schmitt said enhancement efforts should focus on raising S1 smolts. Raised for a full year in fresh water, the migrating smolts have a much higher survival rate than S0s, nicknamed "90-day wonders."

"We need to do more work on the front end [fry production], as opposed to catch management," Cole suggested, adding that over the decades, development and flood control initiatives in the Somass Estuary have removed most of the rearing areas for outmigrating wild chinook salmon.

"We used to have chinooks in Kitsuksis, we had chinooks in Roger [Creek]; we had chinooks in all the creeks," Jake Leyenaar said. "We've been playing with the Nahmint for over 35 years and we're still holding onto our stocks."

DFO fisheries biologist Diana Dobson said while it is almost impossible to track fish on their way to the open ocean, it is possible to trace the origins of returning chinooks. And in the Somass, those are overwhelmingly hatchery fish.

"We install code-wire tags in about 5% of the hatchery fish, as well as doing otolith marking," Dobson said. "If you have the same proportion [5%] of CWT fish in your escapement, it means there's very few wild fish."

Dobson said by sampling the stocks for CWT information, marked otoliths and scale samples, DFO has discovered that the pulses of fish that return to the Somass are almost invariably composed of the same stocks.

Source:
http://www2.canada.com/albernivalleytimes/news/story.html?id=f76660a1-bf48-4aa7-8c0e-5cf203d5fedb

 

[Islandgirl]

I'll bite...
Somass chinooks show their presence around china creek this weekend...BUT dfo has been netting/seining the entire canal 24/7 since July 03/2011
I just read the latest seine notice..open july 29 to aug 05 dunsmere to town....so much for the somass chinooks..besides the last 5 weeks of seining.
Gillnets open aug 02-05 Just like that last 5 weeks of rape and pillaging everything swimming in it, summer steelies, coho, etc.

GEE..I wonder where the somass chinooks are going : (

Disgusted...yet again!
If we were not living in Canada there would be a revolt.
Bill Shaw needs to go!

 

[Bassblaster]

You've got that right.

 

[Wildhootchy]

So I guess there won't be any Springs to be had come Derby time. PA loses again!

 

[Mi Chica]

So I guess there won't be any Springs to be had come Derby time. PA loses again!

That's a pretty safe bet, d_ _ n it. As for Shaw, I understand he is retiring. Don't expect any improvement though, as there seems to be a mid set in DFO that defies common sense.