A photograph of sockeye salmon taken on July 30, 2013.

Image Credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/Oregon State University

Hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon returned to spawning grounds in Osoyoos Lake and Skaha Lake after swimming up the Columbia River all summer, an incredible 1,000-kilometre journey.

“It’s the biggest return of Okanagan sockeye on record, it’s really exciting,” Okanagan Nation Alliance fisheries biologist Elinor McGrath said.

The Pacific sockeye salmon in the Columbia River basin have been declining over the past century due to pressures from development including hydroelectric dam construction, irrigation, over fishing and agricultural developments.

Thanks to the conservation work done by the alliance, in collaboration with the federal and provincial governments over the last few decades, Okanagan sockeye are making a big comeback.

“The run size through the lower portions of the route was roughly 550,000, and just shy of an estimated 300,000 of them made it to the lakes," McGrath said. 

The Okanagan River is one of the major tributaries of the Columbia River in a basin that extends between BC and Washington state. Okanagan river sockeye salmon leave the Pacific ocean and return to the Columbia River in early June. They swim up river for 986 km past 10 dams to spawning grounds to Osoyoos Lake and Skaha Lake.

The fish spawn in October and the young emerge in spring where they spend a year growing before heading to the ocean. The sockeye spend between one and three years in the ocean before returning to the Columbia to migrate and spawn.

This summer the fish were set back by thermal barriers in July, a challenge they face every year, according to McGrath. Once river water temperatures reach 22 Celsius the fish stop moving and drop down into lakes where can find cool water in the depths.

READ MORE: British Columbia buys land to expand Okanagan Lake Park

McGrath said the majority of the fish were holding in pools created by Wells Dam near Brewster, Washington until cooler weather came the third week of August, dropping river temperatures and triggering the run to continue.

In recent years, low numbers of the sockeye have made it into Okanagan Lake using a fish ladder to pass through the Penticton dam, and McGrath said some fish from this migration started arriving there in the last week or so.

Working alongside partners on both sides of the border, the alliance has carried out countless physical habitat restoration projects over the years, including creating passages at the numerous dams and optimizing flows for fish production, restoring and repairing reaches of the river and placing spawning gravel.

READ MORE: iN VIDEO: Young girls catch massive crayfish in Okanagan Lake

Every year the alliance raises and releases millions of sockeye salmon fry at a hatchery in Penticton.

The alliance also has a variety of monitoring programs where fish can be tagged and are counted as they swim past detection sites to determine survival rates. Carcass sampling is where biological data is collected to monitor the health of the population.

“The work has all happened under the guidance of the Syilx nation, so many groups worked together to bring us to where we are today,” McGrath said.

READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Exploring a 125-year-old shipwreck in BC's Kootenay Lake

The Okanagan Nation Alliance was formed in 1981 as the inaugural First Nations government in the Okanagan which represents the eight member communities including the Okanagan Indian Band, the Upper Nicola Band, the Westbank First Nation, the Penticton Indian Band, the Osoyoos Indian Band along with the Lower and Upper Similkameen Indian Bands and the Colville Confederated Tribes on areas of common concern. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2024