Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[bigsnag]

I think this system is ripe for one......

[banx]

there are several recent articles coming out speaking against the use of hatcheries.  I was a supporter of them, and still do think that some systems like the seymour or capilano need one.... the vedder as well probably because of the economic impact fisherpeople have on chilliwack chasing the various species.

but the squamish is unlike those three......  catch and release, no retention and habitat restoration are more likely to help restore wild fish populations than dumping in a bunch of clones. more research on ocean survival.

http://westseattleblog.com/2014/12/when-do-more-fish-fewer-fish-author-dylan-tomine-tells-the-steelhead-saga-at-west-seattles-emerald-water-anglers/

[Fish or cut bait.]

Not at this point in time!

[Silex-user]

I like the Squamish river wild and pristine. Just keep it catch and release. No hatchery clones.



Silex-user

[clarki]

You mean, beside the Tenderfoot?

"Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery was built in 1981 to enhance primarily chinook salmon stocks in the Squamish River watershed."

"Today, Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery produces 1.6 million chinook smolts, 300,000 coho smolts and 100,000 chum fry each year. Up to 3 million pink salmon and 100,000 steelhead trout are added to the production on some years, depending upon escapement levels and fishery requirements."


http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sep-pmvs/projects-projets/tenderfoot/bg-rb-eng.htm

[cutthroat22]

I really think what the Squamish and tribs really need, as Banx said, is habitat restoration over hatcheries.

I have witnessed first hand on one of the tribs the value that habitat restoration provides.  Without it the river would be essentially dead.

[bkk]

"Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery was built in 1981 to enhance primarily chinook salmon stocks in the Squamish River watershed."

"Today, Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery produces 1.6 million chinook smolts, 300,000 coho smolts and 100,000 chum fry each year. Up to 3 million pink salmon and 100,000 steelhead trout are added to the production on some years, depending upon escapement levels and fishery requirements."


http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sep-pmvs/projects-projets/tenderfoot/bg-rb-eng.htm

Those numbers are not current. The current production is 150 000 coho smolts, 125 000 yearling chinook, about 200 000 fed chinook fry of the year, 1.5 million chum salmon and 1.5 million pink salmon on odd years. Steelhead have not been produced at this facility since the 1990's except for 2 years due to the CN Rail caustic soda spill in 2005.

If you want significant steelhead and chinook populations in the Squamish then you will need to do fish culture as habitat projects for the most part will not work. This main river is just too dynamic and the river flood events are too large to effectively build large amounts of habitat. It just won't stay in place for the most part.It is a different matter for the other species. All of the major habitat projects for steelhead and chinook in the upper Squamish have been done ( Shovelnose and the Ashlu) and they have only been moderately successful and they have not rebuilt the populations. They were also expensive ( about $500 000 per project). Those projects were funded under the old Forest Renewel Watershed Restoration monies and that has long since dried up with no hope it it ever returning. The only significant project left in the upper watershed is the fish migration barriers on the Elaho. If these were modified then salmonids could access another 40 km of stream. This project has been opposed by the Provincial government as they do not want salmon competing with the "native" rainbows( steelhead fry) that were introduced by the Province in the late 1980's early 1990's.

As for the Squamish being wild and pristine..... hardly. Serious logging in the past and ongoing. Old mines and IPP projects. A ton of anglers and people and only getting busier. So pristine. No.