An estimated 670,000 walleye entered the Columbia River system this summer on a journey of nearly 1,000 kilometers upstream to spawning grounds in creeks and rivers, according to ONA fish biologists. More than 80 percent of those fish are destined for Canadian waters near Osoyoos, BC, in the South Okanagan, said Richard Bussanich, the agency’s chief fish biologist. “This is a great story,” Busanic said. “We have more fish than spawners coming back.” Initial projections for the annual return of sockeye were fewer than 200,000, but Bussanich said climate and weather conditions this year, combined with the success of spawning bed restoration and First Nations-led fish hatchery programs, had resulting in an abundant return of salmon to the area. WATCHES | Okanagan Nation Alliance celebrates highest salmon return on record
Celebrating record salmon return in BC’s Okanagan
A small native fishery in the Okanagan is closing for the season after a record return of sockeye salmon. Restoration work over the past two decades has restored fish migration routes in the area. “Every once in a while you get to witness something right. It’s just humbling and overwhelming sometimes,” he said. The record salmon return means ONA’s economic fishing and community harvesting program is thriving this year. Okanagan sockeye salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean nearly 1,000 kilometers up the Columbia River and Okanagan River, passing nine hydroelectric dams to reach spawning beds in the South Okanagan, British Columbia. (CBC News) Throughout August, a crew on the trawler’s 12-meter purse seiner netted approximately 10,000 sole from Lake Osoyoos to be distributed to ONA’s seven Syilx communities, with another 40,000 salmon for the commercial fishery. It’s hard work under the hot Okanagan sun, but enjoyable for anglers like Oly Clarke. Oly Clarke has been fishing for sockeye salmon for the Okanagan Nation Alliance fishery for the past 10 years. (Brady Strachan/CBC) “Great to help community members get their fish. Watch [the salmon] go to market, come back to be canned, candied and all that good stuff,” said Clarke, who has been a part of ONA fisheries for the past decade.
Restoring sockeye to the area
Clarke says his crew uses seine nets to trap stocking shoals in the lake and pull them out of the water. It’s an unusual sight on Lake Osoyoos, which is packed with yachts and jet skis during the summer tourist season. Hundreds of silverfish are then dumped into large, plastic containers on a low-profile package boat and taken ashore to be placed on ice. The Okanagan Nation Alliance operates a 12-foot seine fishing boat to catch migratory sockeye salmon on Lake Osoyoos. (Brady Strachan/CBC) Watching the crew bring in the harvest is an emotional experience for Syilx people like Pauline Trebasket, ONA’s executive director. “My earliest childhood memories are of accompanying my mom and dad to the Merritt area to cocoon (salmon) because there were no more salmon around here,” Trebasket said. Okanagan Nation Alliance Executive Director Pauline Trebasket remembers traveling with her family further into Merritt, B.C., as a child to catch salmon because hydroelectric dam projects had cut off salmon migration in the South Okanagan. (Brady Strachan/CBC) For decades, Okanagan waters were closed to migrating sockeye by a series of nine hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River system. Working with Canadian and U.S. agencies, First Nations in the Okanagan have worked to restore migration channels and reintroduce sockeye to the region over the past two decades—each year expanding the breeding range further into the valley’s creeks and rivers. This year biologists plan to transfer 3,000 soles to Okanagan Lake to further restore the salmon species’ natural habitat. “It’s very rewarding to know that I’m a part of that, that I’m just a small part of something that our people have done for millennia in terms of feeding their families and having access to their food where they live,” Trebasket said. . While this summer’s bountiful harvest is cause for celebration, Trebasket acknowledged the challenges a changing climate could have on the sockeye run in the coming years. “We want our children and future generations to have clean water. Our salmon, our entities need cold water. They need this water,” he said. “As one of our elders always states and reminds us, in the most difficult and adverse times this salmon restoration initiative is bigger than all of us.”
