Upper Skeena Roundtable Report – Fall 2007
The Bulkley River went from a forty year low water period in summer/fall 2006 to historic recorded high in June 2007. Heavy snow packs and a slow spring thaw kept all upper Skeena tributaries at high levels into late summer. This affected angling for Chinook due to water conditions and sockeye and coho fishing were considered poor overall for most systems.
High water also affected access to Chinook broodstock in upper Bulkley but spawners did make it into the upper watershed to areas they have not always make it to in recent years.
A new program for Morice Chinook was initiated through Pacific Salmon Commission funding from the Northern Endowment Fund for Chinook Enhancement, the purpose is to provide a CWT group from the Morice River. Broodstock was taken from the Morice by the Toboggan Creek Society in September of 2007 to start this program.
Coded Wire Tagging is again an issue for the north as results from the monitoring are dismal for the commercial trollers who were found to be non compliant overall (>70%). There is also no structured monitoring of marked fish for the burgeoning charter and tidal sportfishery which leave a large gap in any CWT data being collected.
Chinook runs to the Upper Skeena continue their downward slide with no apparent action by area managers. Results from 2007 are 30% of the 5 year average in the 1990’s and many rivers such as the Kispiox are not even being assessed for spawner counts.
Coho stocks in the upper Skeena appear to be down approximately 30% from last year and anglers reported poor success rates for their efforts, likely partially due to water conditions. Toboggan creek reported 2630 Coho adults into the stream of which 11.9% were CWT tagged hatchery returns. Coho were observed in Canyon creek following a 3 year fry outplanting program from the Toboggan facility and it was heartening to see Coho back to this system after many years.
The Gitanyow Chiefs are taking Fisheries & Oceans Canada to court for not meeting escapement goals for sockeye returns to the Kitwanga River. This has been a long standing issue with First Nations in the Upper Skeena as Fisheries continues to prosecute commercial fisheries at the mouth of the Skeena and continually fails to meet escapement goals for natural sockeye stocks in the region while attempting to harvest the enhanced Babine sockeye runs. Unfortunately this affects not only native sockeye stocks to all other tributaries but Chinook, Coho, Chum and Steelhead stocks bound for the upper Skeena rivers as well.
MOE has approached local anglers through the local SFAB to introduce a “NEW” initiative for a “Quality Waters Program” said to be designed to apply “Angling Management Plans” to some Skeena quality rivers by late 2009…..This after 20 years of a legislated requirement for Angling Use Plans that were never put in place. As
mentioned in our last report and brought up by local anglers at the meeting it may well be too late as that boat has sailed and our rivers appear to have been sold for $20 a day to as many non-resident as want to come.
Steelhead runs were said to be about the worst since the early 70’s and you won’t find much argument from anyone who bothered to go down to the river. Some big fish were caught and more smaller fish than normal but the average 6 – 16 pound fish were virtually absent from the population through much of the fishery. This from Babine and Kispiox reports as well. Local anglers report recent improvement in the fishing since the hordes have left the river but still slower than usual for this time of year.
Dutch Shell continues the push to develop Coalbed Methane in the Upper Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers with the support of the Provincial Government and against the wishes of the majority of the northern population. For more info see: http://skeenawatershed.com
We need all the help we can get to “Keep the Shell Out”