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Big Bar Landslide Update – Hope for Improved Salmon Run Via Fishway – With Input from First Nations, Cultus Lake Research Laboratory

Big Bar/Lillooett/Cultus Lake – Federal Fisheries Officials were optimistic about Salmon stocks in a national media conference held virtually on Wednesday.

In early June, with water levels expected to exceed 7,000 cubic metres per second (cms), crews shifted focus to prepare for high water. Components of the concrete fish ladder structure were temporarily dismantled, precision monitoring equipment removed and the fish wheel relocated to prevent potential harm.

On June 7, freshet flows peaked at 6,400 cms but have since started to drop, allowing crews to safely return and reassemble equipment. On the same day, “trap and transport” crews from High Bar First Nation and Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation arrived onsite for their first shift of the season. When fish start to arrive at site, transport by truck will only occur when they are unable to migrate past the barrier on their own; this approach will minimize handling and risk to the salmon.

Rock fall protection work is ongoing, including repairs to the north mesh, a mini-drape net hung on the south slope and bolting of rocks along the Razorback.

On June 8, 2021, First Nations and DFO released 60,800 Early Stuart sockeye fry into Gluske Creek near Fort St. James and into Hudson Bay Creek near Takla Landing as part of the ongoing Big Bar landslide response. The eggs were collected from adults captured at the slide site in the summer of 2020. The release builds on the emergency enhancement work underway since 2019; it is a critical step towards supporting the long term survival of the at-risk early-season sockeye.

Planning for the release began in 2020 in partnership with the Takla Nation, Nak’azdli Whut’en, Tl’azt’en Nation, the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance and staff from DFO’s Salmonid Enhancement Program.

These fry were reared from eggs and milt collected from adult salmon that arrived at the landslide site during the 2020 migration season. The adults were transported to the Cultus Lake Research Laboratory outside of Chilliwack, where they were held until they matured, at which point eggs and milt were collected. Following several weeks of incubation at the laboratory, the eggs were then relocated to Inch Creek Hatchery near Mission, where they were reared until they were transported to their natal streams on June 8. The released fry will now imprint on creeks, streams and lakes in the Stuart River watershed. In spring 2022, they will make the 1,200-kilometre journey to the ocean as sockeye smolts. After two or three years in the Pacific, they will return to the Fraser River and migrate back to their natal streams in the Takla-Trembleur region of this watershed.

Some of the lowest returns of early-season Fraser River sockeye were recorded in 2019 and 2020. While the natural passage of later timed sockeye to the Chilko and other Upper Fraser systems were more successful, a number of factors impacted the early migrating Fraser River salmon.

In 2019, fish were stalled for significant time at the slide area while repeatedly trying to pass through the canyon. This delay was compounded by severe flooding in the Chilcotin and Blackwater watersheds that July. In trying to pass the slide, they injured themselves and depleted their remaining energy reserves. Other salmon that were captured and carried over the slide in transport tanks also had low survival rates due to exhaustion and injury

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