Massive amount of sockeye causing headaches for DFO
Fisheries officials say that the unusually large number will pose new challenges
By Tamara Cunningham, Daily News; With A File From Alberni Valley TimesSeptember 14, 2011
An unprecedented number of sockeye escaped up the Somass River this spring, leaving fishery managers unsure of how to plan for future years.
Heavy snowpack and cool weather helped rocket sockeye past an aggressive net fishery, meant to curtail the number of fish heading up-river. There are now more spawning fish than the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has ever seen before.
Of the 1.4 million sockeye forecasted this year, the DFO only wanted 400,000 to spawn. It authorized an net fishery to limit escapement, but according to Wilf Luedke, DFO's chief biologist for the south coast, more than double or 800,000 fish have managed to swim into Great Central and Sproat Lakes.
"We've never seen this number spawn. It's uncharted territory for us," he said. "This will be the first time we can answer just how many fish are good for an ecosystem."
The fishery winded down in early July and members of Fisheries Round Table took its first look at weekly escapement numbers and the fishing plan for the upcoming week. They said then that they had never such a movement of fish. Within a week, 300,000 salmon had escaped into the lakes.
"I've been here since 1964 and I've never seen 350,000 to 400,000 fish move in such a short time," said round table member Jake Leyenaar.
Fisherman Bob Cole said salmon numbers were the same as 2010, but because of the weather, considered the coldest in more than five decades, they moved up river faster, making them hard to catch. There can be such a thing as too much fish, he said of the lakes. There is now more than double the usual number of fish in those lakes and not enough nutrients for all the fry.
"You get over the 200,000 and it starts getting unproductive," he said.
The DFO is monitoring juveniles, which stay in the freshwater for a year before they head to the ocean. Acoustic and trawl surveys will allow it to keep track of the numbers and plan for management in future years.
Luedke said an unprecedented number of salmon could mean enormous potential for return four years or die-off.
"This is so new to us that as far as the potential good or bad . . . we don't know," he said. "We need to keep an eye on the situation."
