February, 2006 SEHAB Roundtable Report
By Eric Carlisle
A major issue is the decline in coho returns to many south coast rivers in 2005. SEHAB members will remember the e=mails which were being sent back and forth in early January.  From friends at DFO, in early December (during that long period of sunny weather and low flows), I heard that Chilliwack Hatchery had only 6,000 cohoes as “swim-ups” but the hatchery met its brood target.  After the river rose in the latter part of December, I heard some more cohoes entered Chilliwack Hatchery.  However, I also heard that both Big Qualicum and Quinsam Hatcheries did not meet their brood targets. Later, I heard that the Tenderfoot Hatchery (Cheakamus River) return was about half the 20 year average.  Capilano Hatchery had 9,774, and others stayed in the river.  In fact, if the ladder had not been blocked in December, I have no doubt that several hundred more would have come in and the return would have broken 10,000.  Capilano met its brood target and was within a hundred of its target for transporting adult coho to the upper watershed for natural spawning.  Of course, you have to remember that there are several complicating factors on Capilano River.  During medium to high flows, the native Indian fishery at the river’s mouth takes only small numbers of cohoes, but during the summer low flows, the native Indian fishery is very effective.  Still, hatchery staff find that in spite of low flows and the native Indian fishery, they always manage to obtain sufficient coho brood.  From what I saw of the fishery in the river, at the rivermouth and at other beach areas, the run was lower than normal.  The Seymour coho return was estimated to be 2,500-2,800—down but not too bad.  DFO’s Linda Stevens, who handles the SFAB local committees, told me that she had heard that many runs were about a quarter of normal.  Yet I did hear one good report—Norrish or Suicide Creek was supposed to have had a good return.
If SEHAB members think about the e-mails which were being sent around about the coho returns, each of us has a handle on what happened in our own areas and we may have some idea what happened in other areas.  However, we do not have DFO’s views on how widespread the low returns were in 2005 and why the returns were down. Therefore, we need to hear from DFO about how the coho runs were throughout the south coast, why many of the runs were lower than normal, and what DFO plans to do about the situation.  In other words, before we can make any recommendations about the south coast coho situation, we need to know the overall picture.        Concerning steelhead, I have heard a variety of reports about improved winter steelhead returns to at least some of the south coast rivers.  Hopefully, this trend will continue and we are not getting a one year blip in the current low ocean survivals.  At the February 8 Open House re the Cheakamus steelhead situation, many of us who attended obtained copies of a steelhead fish culture recovery option draft discussion paper prepared for the Cheakamus River Ecosystem Recovery Technical Committee.  The MoE plan, which this paper puts forth for discussion and public comment, calls for taking 22 pairs of winter steelhead in each of 2006 and 2007 and releasing a target of 33,000 smolts each succeeding year.  The goal is to increase the spawning escapements in 2008 to 2011. Personally, I think the increased returns will occur in 2009-2011; the predicted 87 one
ocean steelhead return in 2008 is excessive.  The predicted wild returns are 109 in 2008, 22 in 2009, 31 in 2010 (the Olympics year!), and 118 in 2011.  In recent years, the Cheakamus has seen returns of 300-400, and the historic run was probably in excess of 1,000.  Comments can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by February 22.  Various organizations are sending letters to Environment Minister Barry Penner or to CRERTC, and I am one of I hope many individuals who has sent in comments about the steelhead fish culture plan.