9328 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Eight streams that empty into Baynes Sound have been, the traditional backbone of the Georgia Strait coho sports fishery. However, commercial fisheries and an aggressive sport fishery targeting on these runs have led to depressed stocks through overfishing. They became the focus of rebuilding in 1988. It became impractical to manage the eight streams separately because of extreme exploitation. Biologists now manage them as one unit with stocks treated as a single gene pool. BC biologists believe the small genetic differences do not justify managing each stream separately. Also, too few fish return to attempt separate stock management for each stream. Thirty pairs of wild adults, collected from the eight streams, provide smolt production. All outplanted smolts are adipose clipped to facilitate wild broodstock collection in subsequent years using this management strategy. Fry are never more than one generation removed from wild stock. The use of wild broodstock each generation in SEP supplementation more than pays for the additional labor. We believe this procedure may be of benefit in the Columbia Basin where possible to implement. Public Participation BC provides an opportunity for many citizens to volunteer their time in enhancing salmonids. The SEP sponsors one of the most unique public participation program in North America. This program provides community advisors, stationed throughout the province, to give technical and financial assistance. Individuals, clubs, schools, service organizations, and community groups may apply for this program. Opportunities for such participation lie in maintaining, restoring, and improving the stream habitat essential to salmonid production. Through public participation, enhancement projects also offer a unique opportunity to develop a greater awareness of the salmonid resource and man's influence on the stream environment. Summary In the 13 years since the SEP began, BC biologists have recorded real progress toward meeting their goals of doubling the runs. Their total budget for 1988/89 was approximately $42 million. They de-emphasize recycling hatchery broodstock and placed a moratorium on new hatchery construction. They developed objectives and goals to utilize natural production and semi-natural production in supplementing their stocks. It would be tempting at this juncture to dismiss SEP's objectives as unrealistic in the Columbia Basin. However, their upper .Fraser and Thompson River stocks of steelhead and Chinook salmon migrate hundreds of miles inland to spawning grounds. SEP biologists still practice the same sound genetic principles as with coastal stocks. The Whitehorse Rapids Hatchery. on the Yukon River continues to collect wild broodstock in view of adult- immigrations of 3520 Km (2200 miles). We believe the judicious use of wild broodstock for BC supplementation work has been a positive factor in their successes. 30