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Thursday, March 27, • 2014
Vol.11 • Issue 13
La Vino Loca... wine festival Let’s face it, Dam City coming up in early April has good Rollers See Page A17 See Pages A20-A23
Rauni Naud
Phil (PJ) Poznekoff
Phil@castlegarrealty.ca
365-4679
Advisor, Member of the Million Dollar Round Table Mutual funds offered by Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc.
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250.365.0484 rauni.naud@sunlife.com
Jo-Ann Bursey Mountainview Realty Ltd.
304.8681
jo-ann@century21castlegar.com
Nancy Trotman Mortgage Broker
www.KootenayConnection.com
250-365-9513 888-998-9513 All MLS
Listings Mountainview Realty
Greg Gritchin
365.9791 kootenayconnection@gmail.com
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Refreshing scene at Tulip Creek Falls, north of Syringa Provincial Park near Lower Arrow Lake
Christine Esovoloff
Kootenay kokanee stocks in decline DEREK KAYE Castlegar News contributor
Government biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Branch of the Ministry of Forests Lands and Resources have met twice in Castlegar with the West Kootenay Fly Fishing Club three months ago and last week with the Wildlife Club to discuss the decline of Kokanee fish stocks in
the Kootenay and Arrow Lakes. The Castlegar News caught up with fly fishing guide Rod Zavaduk who has attended both meetings and although not a trained biologist, has an expert understanding of the local fish life cycles, habitat, and feeding characteristics. Although the kokanee decline, which is caused by a virus, will be an issue for two or three years be-
fore a hopeful recovery, his concerns include the passing of the virus into the rainbow trout population which eat kokanee and the potential for the virus to travel from Kootenay Lake into Kootenay River and eventually the Columbia River where Rod Zavaduk does the majority of his guiding. Kokanee are land-locked sockeye salmon which with the start of
dam construction on the Columbia and Kootenay rivers trapped a formerly ocean maturing fish into the Kootenay and Arrow Lakes systems. Kokanee have adapted, to live their entire lives in these fresh water bodies and others such as Okanagan Lake. However, they still live on a two-year life cycle returning to spawn in headwater creeks and rivers that flow
into the aforementioned lakes just as sockeye return to spawn every two years on un-dammed ocean flowing rivers. Rod Zavaduk explained that, “They will make their own recovery when the infected ones die off. As that cycle of infected fish dies off and as long as they do not pass the...
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Continued on P. A4
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