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[bkk]

Even year pinks transplants to the Squamish have been suggested by several groups and individuals but for what ever reason the Federal - Provincial transplant committee has declined. It would benefit the ecosystem immensely with benefits to fish thru grizzly bears. One of the reasons I have heard for the decline of approval is that most even year pinks stocks on southern Vancouver Island originated from transplants from the Campbell - Quinsam system at Campbell River. It was stated that they felt that this group had been moved around enough on the Island and they did not want to move them to the mainland side of the straight. There are even year stocks on the mainland side of the straight but approval to move them has not been given. There is a very small even year component in Squamish but it appears that there are only a few hundred fish on a good year. Very hard to catch them in any amount that would result in any significant number of fry to release. A transplant is the only realistic way to have a even year pink run in this system. Not likely to happen in my opinion. To bad. Would have made a nice fishery as well as benefiting the char, trout and other species of fish that spend extensive time rearing in freshwater.

[Dave]

Gotta agree bkk.  Seems a no brainer to try some even year pink enhancement as the benefits, watershed wide, would be considerable.
Plan to see Matt very soon on the C-V so will ask his opinion on this.

[RalphH]

The Campbell system was enhanced beyond anything resembling historical abundance and some of the other systems to the south received transplants to bring back populations that were negligible or extirpated. 

Suggestions to establish some fishery in even number years have been around for some time including just raising fry in pens for release.

As much as fishing pinks is a lot of fun I'd think there are better things to spend money on plus do we really want the pink salmon zoo every year?

[Dave]

As much as fishing pinks is a lot of fun I'd think there are better things to spend money on plus do we really want the pink salmon zoo every year?

My thoughts were not so much the sports fishery as the benefits of gravel cleaning, carcass decomposition providing nutrients, and the fry available as food for juvenile coho, steelhead, cutthroat and various bird species.
I believe this has been tried before at Jones Creek, with no measurable success, and at the Cultus Lake Laboratory, with the same results.

[RalphH]

For a long time I wished we had an even year run here in the valley, even if it was not a dominant run. Farther north it's more common that while many streams have pinks every year, one year (usually the even year) is the dominant year and the other year is substantially smaller.

However I start to think that maybe mother nature knows better - there may be a reason the Fraser is swarming with pinks every September.

Dave do you know of any sizable salmon runs in the PNW that were established solely by stocking but not supported by a hatchery in the long term?

The April=May issue of Fly Fisherman has an article on rivers in Chile that have introduced runs of chinook (Cowlitz River Washington sourced). According to the article a Japanese fishery concern introduced these fish to establish a salmon ranching business. It failed but the fish went on to establish runs that are up to now self-sustaining; fish that average 25 to 35lbs and can exceed 50.
Photo:



download: https://bookspics.com/magazines/fly-fisherman-april-may-2017/

[Dave]

Off the top of my head (the pointed part), the only stock I can think of are Cowichan Browns, and they are not what most would consider a sizeable population.
Can anyone else chime in here?

[Dave]

2 sockeye stocks that might meet your criteria Ralph ... in the late 70's Stellako females were crossed with Horsefly jacks; eyed eggs were planted out in river near the townsite in an attempt to establish a lower river spawning population, and
Cayenne Creek females were crossed with Upper Adams males, reared in an incubation box and later fed for a few months in a floating net pen.  Gametes from returning progeny were trough reared on the banks of the Upper Adams and the fed fry released into the river. This project was a definite success as before these efforts the population of the Upper Adams was in the hundreds, if that many.  Now, if they aren't fished into near extinction, numbers are close to 60,000.

[CohoJake]

2 sockeye stocks that might meet your criteria Ralph ... in the late 70's Stellako females were crossed with Horsefly jacks; eyed eggs were planted out in river near the townsite in an attempt to establish a lower river spawning population, and
Cayenne Creek females were crossed with Upper Adams males, reared in an incubation box and later fed for a few months in a floating net pen.  Gametes from returning progeny were trough reared on the banks of the Upper Adams and the fed fry released into the river. This project was a definite success as before these efforts the population of the Upper Adams was in the hundreds, if that many.  Now, if they aren't fished into near extinction, numbers are close to 60,000.

The sockeye that return to Lake Washington are completely introduced, but it was done so long ago there aren't good records - they have studied genes to determine they were from Baker river (Skagit) stock.  The Lake Washington watershed was so drastically changed that it had a serious impact on the fisheries available, so it was an attempt to correct for what had been done.  Lake Washington used to drain out the south end into the Dwamish watershed, but it's level was raised so it would flow out the north end, connecting to Lake Union and, via the Ballard Locks, this made the lake navigable to relatively large vessels. 

Although a portion of the returns to Lake Washington are hatchery origin, there are now many self-sustaining populations that spawn in the lake and in many tributaries.  These fish have become quite specialized over the last century, with a smaller-bodied (and smaller humped) population adapting to the tributaries, and larger and deeper fish adapted to spawning in the lake itself.

The fall chinook that return to the Nooksack, Skagit, and Samish rivers are introduced Green River stock (although in the case of the Samish river they are produced in large numbers by the hatchery).  Again, the runs were so well established in these rivers that genetic testing was necessary to determine where they were introduced from.

[Dave]

More good stuff from you WAfishboy

[Silex-user]

Off the top of my head (the pointed part), the only stock I can think of are Cowichan Browns, and they are not what most would consider a sizeable population.
Can anyone else chime in here?

Hey Dave, I used to fished over Vancouver island rivers a lot back in the 80's and 90's when ferry rates was quite reasonable. The Cowichan river from River Bottom road up to Marie Canyon falls was area I fished. There once a while I would catch quite  few silver hatchery Brown trouts with missing adipose fin. Not sure they migrated out to sea or not but they were quite silver compared to the resident browns. The largest hatchery brown I caught was around 15". Never did bonk them even through it was legal to retain wild or hatchery trouts back then.


Silex user

[bkk]

Dave do you know of any sizable salmon runs in the PNW that were established solely by stocking but not supported by a hatchery in the long term?

Depends what you call sizeable. Mcnab Creek in Howe Sound had a chum transplant into it in the '80's to support some new habitat that was constructed. It is now a small but sustaining population.
Another one is Maria Slough chinook in the Fraser Valley east of Agassiz. A small population was enhanced out of Inch Creek Hatchery for a few years along with habitat enhancement and it is now self sustaining as a small population ( a few hundred fish ) the last I heard.

[banx]

just a thought, but could it be a failure at jones creek etc because they were using odd year fish?  could something like needing to come back on an odd year be genetic? maybe those failed fish were coming in one year early to match what they should have been doing?


I have tried to research why theres only odd year pinks here. no one knows why. really, it's kind of strange.

maybe trying to get an even run with even year fish from a northern river might help time it with its normal cycle?

anyone here have a theory on why theres no even year run?

[GordJ]

Because the rivers need to lie fallow for a year to recover?

[RalphH]

anyone here have a theory on why theres no even year run?

up around Agassiz there was a landslide that blocked the Fraser about 6000 years ago. The river below was dry for a period of time. I had read speculation that may have been the cause - but who can say.

If you look at some runs such as the Adams - the peak that this year will occur in 2018 is associated with dramatic nulls and mid'lin runs in between. this may relate to available feed issues - the 4 years peak in the Adams is sometimes thought to effect available feed in following years. The dominant minor 2 year pattern of pinks may reflect something similar.

BTW I have read that pinks from Siberia have recently constituted about 70% of the total salmonid biota in the Pacific.

Pink and Steelhead abundance are also supposedly negatively correlated. Point being the abundance of one species or year class may reduce the abundance of other species and year classes.

[Dave]

GordJ, recover from what?  Salmonids of various species spawn every year so I can't see even year pinks being a problem.  They are, imo, the perfect coastal fish in that all they need (in very basic terms) is decent water flows, decent gravel, and a functioning estuary.