Alberni Inlet Fish Kill

I won't be shedding any tears for the mackerel but clearly there is something wrong. Maybe water temperatures? Virus? Pollution?
 
do they usually come up that high? mabey more fresh water coming down into the system, mabey a shock to the system.
 
Not being an expert, my thoughts are mackerel are a voratious predator and they chased the herring into water that did not have enough oxygen to survive in. This has happened in US coastal waters, I remember reading about this.
 
This was a scary statement from the article:

"For our salmon's sake, the more that die (mackerel), the better," Leyenaar said. "In four year's time, we might not see a [sockeye salmon] run at all."

This was referring to the mackerel eating salmon fry. However, if my understanding of the sockeye life cycle is correct, socks live in the lakes for 2 or 3 years before migrating to the ocean. How big would these sockeye be by then? I'm pretty sure they're well past the "fry" stage, and more like a good size smolt. Most of the mackerel I saw out there were actually very small, so I think they'd be pretty optimistic in targeting a smolt. And even if they do manage to nail the sockeye smolts, sockeye return at various ages, from 4 to 6 years old, which ensures a run should never be completely decimated by a one-time event.

Chinook, Coho and Steelies also smoltify in freshwater, and therefore should not be at huge risk.

The only two species that migrate to the ocean as fry are Chum and Pinks. Chum return at various ages as well, so there may be a couple of affected WCVI returns in the future, but not decimated.

This leaves Pinks. They all goto the ocean as fry, and all return at 2 years. The only run that could theoretically be eaten to extinction...but that would require their existence on WCVI.

As much as the mackerel suck and can be problematic, I'm not as concerned as Mr Leyenaar.
 
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sockeye have a four year cycle one year in fresh water three in salt very few five year sockeye a few years ago we had lerge die offs of phichards in port hardy also in rivers and smiths inlets presumed to be caused by lack of oxygen in water and abundunce of fish
 
Sockeye usually do have a 4 year cycle, and they usually stay in freshwater for the first 2 years. There are lots of exceptions but the bulk of them follow the 2 fresh, 2 salt pattern.

Sometimes they return as 3 year olds (jacks) and sometimes as 4 or 5 year olds. At least this is what I have been taught.
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1344570443.753430.jpg

The pic above is a screenshot from a Somass Sockeye bulletin. You'll notice that only 36% of the run this year was expected to be 4yr olds.

There was a concern for the low number of 4 yr olds returning this year, but as we saw, the run was still very healthy, expecting now upwards of 800k.
 
Libbs said:
This was a scary statement from the article:


Chinook, Coho and Steelies also smoltify in freshwater, and therefore should not be at huge risk.


.
Click to expand...

as much that i wish i could belive this, i was catching mackerel at the tahsis inllet. whats in there stomachs? Chinook smolts, and everything else that moves. but belive me, they are eating salmon fry. heck, i pulled out a 14 inch mackerel from a 14 lb chinook when i was up there, so i guess justice was served
 
Libbs said:
... As much as the mackerel suck and can be problematic, I'm not as concerned as Mr Leyenaar.
Click to expand...

The mackeral in the Inlet and Sound range up to 14 inches in size. Even those a fair bit smaller are quite capable of swallowing a whole sockeye smolt, and certainly can / do chow down on springs, coho and steelhead. They have HUGE mouths, extremely fast metabolisms (digest food FAST!) and are VORACIOUS Feeders. A large presence of them when the smolts leave the fresh are more of a problem than you suggest. Really.

While they might not extirpate an entire run, they can certainly knock the numbers way down. Years back when they showed during a strong El Nino year, they knocked the number of springs back to the point the spring fishing was closed here the following cycle, and we saw conservation measures imposed of which many still exist today.

This year the mackerel showed up a tad late to get in on the main outpouring from the river. It is likely the majority of the salmon fry and smolts escaped their ravages. Much more problematic when they arrive earlier.

Cheers,
Nog
 
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