Relocation efforts help sockeye salmon reach escapement goal

PETERSBURG – Efforts by the Canadian agency Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to relocate salmon across a barrier created by a landslide in late May are helping sockeye salmon reach escapement goals.

DFO began relocating sockeye and Chinook salmon via helicopter across the barrier in early July. As of July 20, nearly 4,000 sockeye and over 1,000 large Chinook salmon were successfully transported over the slide area and released into the upper Tahltan River.

Water levels in the Tahtan River had receded by the end of July making it possible for “a significant number of sockeye salmon…to ascend the slide area on their own (estimate several thousand and ongoing),” Steve Gotch, DFO’s director for the Yukon and Northwestern British Columbia, said.

DFO staff ended the relocation project at the end of July.

Gotch said the capture-and-transport efforts along with the unassisted passage of sockeye over the slide barrier have lead to “a strong indication” that they would achieve the escapement goal.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Troy Thynes echoed Gotch, saying, “In terms of escapement, the sockeye runs as far as we know right now appear to have been pretty good.”

Even with sockeye escapement numbers on track, the sockeye harvest in Southeast from the gillnet fleet has been lower than average this season because there have been fewer boats out fishing this year, according to Thynes. A lot of gillnetters went to fish farther up north this year, Thynes said.

The DFO’s capture-and-transport efforts were less successful for Chinook. According to Gotch, “the density of Chinook salmon below the slide area had decreased significantly making effective capture difficult.”

Thynes said that the weir count for Chinook on the Little Tahltan, where the fish run, was “extremely low.”

DFO will continue to assess the sockeye and Chinook returns to the upper Tahltan River watershed until the runs conclude later this month or early in Sept.

The agency will also assess the slide area in the late fall “to determine what measures can be undertaken to remediate the barrier to support salmon passage in future years,” Gotch said.