Sockey at Rivers Inlet?

[likwit]

I've recently been reading the Raincoast Chronicles and came across a story about the canneries at Rivers and Smiths Inlets. I've was able to see the remains of one cannery at Rivers in the few weeks I spent up there over a decade ago, but at the time I didn't realize that they were canning sockeye will all the talk of big springs and my limited knowledge of the industry.

So my question, is there still a decent run of sockeye that head up River's Inlet to any of the main rivers? Is there any commercial or sports fishing for sockeye there? Or are they all but a thing of the past?

 

[Cuba Libre]

http://www.tula.org/RESEARCH/coastalecology.html

20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Whole in the Water]

Good to see some restoration work going on there. I hope they keep up the good work.

Long live wild salmon!!!

 

[Whole in the Water]

Good to see some restoration work going on there. I hope they keep up the good work.

Long live wild salmon!!!

 

[shake a paw]

thats good 2 hear there all over that.im from rivers....and when i was a kid my uncle and my cousins would head out on the mighty wannack 4 sox....and bak then there were lots.man i miss those days.maybe the run will get 2 b what it once was.and the springs...thats another story.

 

[Dave H]

Nice link Cuba Libre. Kinda confirms much of what I've witnessed over the years.

Notwithstanding the increased effectiveness of the commercial fishery during the period, I'm pretty sure that logging was the major
event that compromised those Sockeye runs.
BCFP didn't move in there until most of the easily reached wood had been harvested and they started logging the watersheds around the lake, booming up in the lake then floating the booms down the river to the saltchuck. I should go look it up but I seem to recall they did that for several years before they finished a road and started trucking logs to the chuck.
Rivers Inlet Chinook spawned in the river and there is no doubt their spawning habitat suffered somewhat from that, but the real damage was in the ten tributaries that were known Sockeye spawning streams. Logging way back there out of sight and out of mind back in those days meant not a lot of "environmental" concerns arose resulting in the classic damage that occurs to watersheds that are logged completely and often indiscriminately.
Alterations to flow regimes and all things related to that occurred and within a decade of logging starting the Sockeye fishery was closed as it couldn't support a fishery any longer.
You cannot severely compromise spawning streams like those that supported those Sockeye and the large Chinook the inlet was famous for and expect salmon to carry on regardless.
From a dozen canneries in Rivers Inlet back when they were labour intensive to having a fishery that was probably 75 years old completely shut down........and the only major factor was logging those watersheds. And it took about a decade, not a very long time.
Compelling enough for me.


Take care.

 

[shake a paw]

freakin loggers anyways!!! lol

 

[phnapa]

used to gillnet smiths and rivers as i kid in the 80's we made our whole season there, except a little in the straits later on, there was tons of fish to be had by all, we were even alowed to fish the lagoon in smiths a couple of times, it was great, but it sure ended fast to go from such numbers to nothing in one cycle? im just happy i got to be a part of it at the end we will probably never see that again