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Giving chinook a hand
Wednesday, September 9, 2015 Salmon Arm Observer
By Martha Wickett OBSERVER STAFF
Chinook salmon are getting lots of support from their human backers. Fisheries staff and volunteers wearing hip waders and carrying sand bags have been helping to consolidate smaller channels in the Salmon River delta into one deeper one to help fish make it up-river to spawn. Ron Pederson, president of the Salmon Arm Fish & Game Club, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada contacted him in order to line up more help on the delta, should it be needed. “You can only do a little bit of work at a time, otherwise it disturbs the water too much...,” he says. “It’s a pretty hard job to do; you have hip waders on and when you walk you’re sinking almost up to your knees.” Hank Shelley with the Fish & Game Club, who worked in fisheries for 24 years, says he remembers a similar low-water problem in 2003, when about a quarter mile of channel was dug with shovels and sand-bagged. Meanwhile, up-river at Gene Puetz’s fish-counting gate on his farm in Silver Creek, he’s seen about 100 fish so far this season. “They’re trickling in,” he says, noting the fish hatchery in Merritt has a target of collecting 25 brood pairs. The hatchery, which can produce a better eggs-to-fry ratio, strips the eggs and milk and fer-
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Spawning support: Gene Puetz holds a male Chinook
salmon as he transfers it to a larger holding pen on Saturday, Sept. 5 at his fish gate along the Salmon River. tilizes the eggs. They hatch from January to March and are eventually released back into the Salmon River. The hatchery took 14 fish late last week and another eight on Sunday, but do not take more than a third of the total run. “They need double what they’ve got, at least. It might be a slow process,” Puetz says. “We get chinooks right into October. Normally, the main spawn is the 10th to the 15th of this month.” Puetz said 220 fish went through four years ago. “Hopefully we’ll get at least that.” Stu Cartwright with Fisheries and Oceans Canada says water
temperatures in the Salmon Arm Bay reached 23 degrees Celsius during the hot weather, aided by low water flows. “Anything over 20 degrees is not good news for salmon. Of course we have milfoil and other things that complicate the situation.” However, he is optimistic that current measures will have some success. One concern Pederson raises is he’s been told tourists have been catching salmon from boats near Sandy Point. He has raised the concern with Fisheries and is waiting to hear back. He points out there is no salmon season there, so anyone doing so would be fishing illegally.
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