Sockeye Return

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Something fishy: The salmon are back

Spawning sockeye salmon is seen making its way up the Adams River in Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park near Chase, B.C. Thursday, Oct. 14

 

Jeff Bassett for National Post

 

 

Brian Hutchinson on the Adams River, B.C., National Post · Friday, Oct. 15, 2010

 

The river would run red again. Scientists may have scoffed but old timers, natives, outdoor enthusiasts, they dreamed of it. Blood red, as in some mythical tale.

 

So it is, right now. A river red with millions of returning sockeye salmon. After an incredibly long journey of survival, the sockeye are back, and thrashing, biting, fighting. Coupling and preparing to spawn before they die.

 

This is a true — and truly mysterious — fish story. It started four years ago, at this very spot, when the same fish were just little fry. They wriggled from the Adams River and eventually swam down to the Pacific Ocean. They moved en masse yet undetected, to coastal Alaska and then back for the final, most difficult leg, 450 kilometres long: From the Strait of Georgia, where they last touched salt water, and upstream against the turbulent Fraser and Thompson rivers, deep into the B.C. interior.

 

Then into Shuswap Lake, before a hard left turn towards the Adams River, a mountain-fed stream that in other seasons, other years, would seem merely pleasant, not so consequential.

 

What invisible force could guide these creatures back? There are only theories. The scent of the river, perhaps. Instinct compels them, just as curiosity and wonder drives thousands of humans to witness the sockeyes’ last hours of life. The fish are very healthy, but the males have become almost grotesque. Their backs are now humped; their jaws have turned green and have sprouted ugly fangs.

 

This is the final year of a quadrennial cycle, a sockeye Olympics when a “dominant” run born wild four years prior returns to its birthplace. A good return was expected, but nothing like this.

 

A year ago, about one million sockeye returned to the Fraser River, only one-tenth of the expected count. Calamitous, the scientists said. Officially distressing, replied the Prime Minister’s Office; the federal government called for a Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River.

 

Led by Supreme Court of British Columbia Justice Bruce Cohen, the commission of inquiry commenced this spring and will begin evidentiary hearings in two weeks.

 

In the meantime, confounding expectations and mocking the experts, some 34,546,000 wild sockeye returned to the Fraser River this summer.

 

It was the largest such return in at least 97 years.

 

Some 13 million of the sockeye were caught as they swam into and up the Fraser, most of them taken by commercial fishermen. Another 15 million likely perished in the turbulent river runs, either in the fast-flowing Fraser, or later in the Thompson. A lot of fish died after reaching Shuswap Lake, so close to home.

 

Their pale carcasses piled up. Cottagers closing up in advance of winter noticed an abundance of expired salmon along the shore. They caught the smell.

 

The smell: It’s horrible. Hawkers who have set up in the adjacent provincial park sell paper masks emblazoned with the slogan: I Survived the Stink. And the Adams River is now filled with hundreds of thousands of dying, dead, and decaying salmon. But the paper masks don’t sell. Visitors seem to accept the awful stench. Every day this week, busloads of schoolchildren and carloads of families turned into the provincial park, where volunteers from the Adams River Salmon Society greeted them with more information than most could handle.

 

The sockeye run peaks this weekend, or maybe the next. With these fish, no one can say anything anymore with any certainty. The return to Adams River started early and continues to amaze.

 

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Sonja Vernon-Wood, president of the salmon society. “When we started planning six months ago, no one knew this was going to happen.”

 

Volunteers along with parks and fisheries workers have spoken with visitors from every province, almost every American state, and dozens of other countries. People are hearing about this “once in a lifetime” sockeye run and are making a dash for the Shuswap. Ms. Vernon-Wood counts herself as one of the amazed.

 

“I’ve always been touched by the salmon,” she said. “They bring tears to my eyes, these fish, they really do.”

 

A team of fish scientists — ichthyologists — from Japan emerged from a rented SUV. Jiro Sakaue came here precisely four years ago and witnessed the last dominant run of sockeye. He immediately planned a return visit, this time with two friends, for a whole week. And not for work or for their science; for these men, it’s more important to just watch and enjoy nature’s spectacle.

 

We walked down a wooded trail that follows the Adams River bank. Mr. Sakaue had with him an underwater camera apparatus that he plans to put to good use. The three men all brought dry suits with them, for swimming in the ice-cold river.

 

I asked if that was really allowed.

 

“Yes, if you’re prepared,” said Shinji Kitagawa, one of Mr. Sakaue’s friends. He opened a knapsack and pulled out a letter of referral from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

 

We stared down at a school of sockeye, tightly packed, pushing slightly against the river’s flow and remaining in one place. Dozens of them, in one little spot. Then one fish just — stopped. It floated away, down the river, one big eye opened towards the sky.

 

“Ahhhh,” sighed Mr. Sakaue, with some reverence it seemed. As the salmon go, so do we.

 

National Post

 

 

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Something...l#ixzz12XEGATMt

 

[Jayhad]

Pretty impressive to see, as a guy who grew up in BC and seen the salmon many times this year was incredible

[Mikey]

It was incredible.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

 

shot at about 2 minutes is priceless

 

 

The dead sockeye are critical to the success of the next generation of salmon.

[JIMMAY]

Its amazing how far the fish will run to spawn. Its great to see that they are back.

 

 

shot at about 2 minutes is priceless

 

 

The dead sockeye are critical to the success of the next generation of salmon.

 

[duanec]

yep, thats global warming and the oilsands mother nature for ya...

[Guest Sundancefisher]

An interesting scientific curiousity of Mother Nature at work.

 

If I was to hypothesize what could of occurred...I would guess the following...

 

Sockeye spawn on a 3-5 year cycle. What makes a sockeye spawn at year 3 versus year 5? The only thing I can surmise that has any legs to stand on is condition factor (ie. how strong and healthy is the fish). A sockeye needs a high degree of condition factor to spawn successfully by making it all the way up a river. Therefore if there is limited food supply or slow growth rates or increase in disease or parasites or a combination of all of the above then the option nature gives it to try and spawn and die before successfully spawning or stay out in the ocean another year and try and build up strength to increase the odds of successfully spawning. Something in the fishes genes would trigger reaching the tipping point of being likely to successfully spawn. Therefore...probably the warmer oceans from the changing currents (not the global warming smack talk) caused this to occur by lowering the food supply and probably influencing growth rates.

 

IMHO

[126barnes]

wow can't image a run like that...............40000 fish in our biggest river is a huge year............@ 1500 fish a day through the counter we think the river in chinched.

 

Nice to see a big return after some slim years.

[BBBrownie]

Good theory Sun, that is one that goes around (I think what you are refering to is Pacific Decadal Oscillation?). The hole I see in it though is that good runs were not to be found in all systems. for example, the Skeena system had fairly low returns of all salmon species this year, although great steelhead returns. In the Fraser itself, not all tributaries had great runs. The Adams is a real success story, however, runs on the upper fraser (ex. Stellako, Stuart, etc.) returned in relatively modest numbers. Further, does PDO increase food items for sockeye, but not other species of salmon, or is it other confounding variables holding back stocks of endangered Coho, chum, chinook and nearest to my heart, Steelhead? I truely hope it is as simple as warming ocean trends increasing anadromous salmonid conditioning/fitness, with the large Adams sockeye run and Skeena steelhead run this year being a taste of whats to come, but am afraid there is more to it as the increase in a couple places is masking the decline of many others. A large return in one river must not lead us to forget about the complex issues (habitat degradation, overfishing, pollution, open net salmon farming, irrigation/fertilization, and on and on) that continue to endanger our salmon populations.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Good theory Sun, that is one that goes around (I think what you are refering to is Pacific Decadal Oscillation?). The hole I see in it though is that good runs were not to be found in all systems. for example, the Skeena system had fairly low returns of all salmon species this year, although great steelhead returns. In the Fraser itself, not all tributaries had great runs. The Adams is a real success story, however, runs on the upper fraser (ex. Stellako, Stuart, etc.) returned in relatively modest numbers. Further, does PDO increase food items for sockeye, but not other species of salmon, or is it other confounding variables holding back stocks of endangered Coho, chum, chinook and nearest to my heart, Steelhead? I truely hope it is as simple as warming ocean trends increasing anadromous salmonid conditioning/fitness, with the large Adams sockeye run and Skeena steelhead run this year being a taste of whats to come, but am afraid there is more to it as the increase in a couple places is masking the decline of many others. A large return in one river must not lead us to forget about the complex issues (habitat degradation, overfishing, pollution, open net salmon farming, irrigation/fertilization, and on and on) that continue to endanger our salmon populations.

 

A very complicated scientific issue for sure. I figure condition factor has to play something substantial into it. What we don't know or would be next to impossible to ascertain is to what degree do stocks separate or merge in the open ocean? What different niches do they occupy? Is it like commercial fishing...some populations luck out and hit abundant food...some hit average food and some hit poor food availability? They have shown the PDO does impact heavily on species like krill and now they even show that humbolt squid and some shark species do better in warmer water than the colder. Predation is then also problematic. Still...rumor has it the big run of Sockeye is made up partially from 5 year old fish. Maybe other runs also feel the effects. With 3, 4 and 5 year old fish coming back at any given time...man...what a mess to sort out.

 

Still...hidden in all of this...may be a pending doom scenario from fish farms, habitat...future volcanic eruptions. One just can't guess with accuracy on this one.

[headscan]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nation...article1771042/

[Guest Sundancefisher]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nation...article1771042/

Interesting...