The pinks are back!
Dan MacLennan, Campbell River Courier-Islander, August 19, 2011
The pink salmon are returning to the Campbell River once again, but not in the numbers seen in the last two years.
And higher than normal river flows could make it more challenging to fish them.
"We've got about 70,000 pinks in the Campbell, which has doubled from last week, and we have 9,000 above the hatchery fence in the Quinsam," Quinsam River Hatchery assistant manager Mark Trenholm said after a fish-count river swim Wednesday. "We would be expecting something around the 100,000 probably this year."
That's down considerably from the huge returns of 900,000 in 2009 and 500,000 in 2010, but it's more in line with traditional returns. The recent numbers had increased thanks to a 2005 project where channels were cut through river bedrock obstacles known as 'the cascades' about 13 kilometres upstream from the hatchery. That opened up another 14 kilometres of prime spawning habitat upriver.
But winter season flooding can undo that advantage if it washes salmon eggs out of the gravel.
Because pink salmon have a two-year life cycle, the 2011 pink return estimate is based in part on the number of pink fry migrating out of the river system after the 2009 spawn. For example, the 2010 return was expected to be a big one because of the huge number of fry migrating out to sea in the spring of 2009 from the 2008 spawn.
This year's run is expected to be smaller because "two years ago we had some really bad floods in November which affected the fry migration in the spring."
"Because of the flood, this year's run is based on a pink migration which was down around the normal numbers before we had the cascades (open)," Trenholm said.
Last year people were pulling pinks from the Campbell in July, but this season's run isn't necessarily late. A swim/count of the river on Aug. 18, 2009 found 85,000 pinks in the river. A count the next week, however, found 300,000.
"We still have some room," Trenholm said. "We still could end up with a huge run, but by next week we should know."
He said an estimate in the 100,000 range "gives an idea that we've got enough to do what we need to do in the Quinsam."
"We know we're going to have enough for the natural (spawn)," he said. "We're probably going to have enough to take eggs."
Meanwhile, higher river flows on the Campbell have added yet another variable.
With the snowpack almost gone and water inflows dropping off, BC Hydro will start reducing the Campbell River flow today from 85 cubic metres per second to about 60 m3/s by Monday. The 60 m3/s flow is still almost double the target level for this time of year.
Beginning in mid-September, BC Hydro will then follow its water license by slowly increasing river flows to about 120 m3/s by the first week of October. This is to lower the reservoirs in anticipation of the fall rains and for flood risk management.
