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British Columbia: Okanagan Nation Returns Sockeye Salmon To Skaha Lake After 50 Years |
| June 4, 2004 |
Source: Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
By Andy Torr
AquaNews Staff Writer
 | | Sockeye salmon are noted for their brilliant crimson and green spawning colours. Photo: Vancouver Aquarium |
After an absence of over half a century, sockeye salmon have returned to Skaha Lake, B.C. with help from some of the people who know them best: the Okanagan Nation.
Approximately 350,000 sockeye fry were released last week into Skaha Lake after being raised from eggs collected from the Okanagan River in 2003. The fry will rear in Skaha Lake for one year before migrating through the Okanagan and Columbia Rivers on their way to the Pacific Ocean.
The reintroduction follows almost a century of habitat destruction and blocked migration routes that prevented the Okanagan sockeye population from returning to their Skaha Lake spawning grounds. The construction of a dam at the outlet of Okanagan Lake in 1914 was the first in a series of developments that blocked natural salmon migration routes. The operation of McIntyre Dam, just downstream from Vaseux Lake, has limited the upstream migration of salmon for at least fifty years. Fifty percent of the overall river length was lost to salmon when the channelization of the Okanagan River was completed in the mid-1950’s.
"We initiated this project because we want our salmon back,” said Chief Stewart Phillip of the Penticton Indian Band. "It is our responsibility to continue to protect our Okanagan Title and Rights, which include the management of all our resources, and to ensure the accountability of the federal and provincial governments.”
Restoring A Legacy
Shared between British Columbia and Washington, the Okanagan River is an international watershed and a tributary to the Columbia River. To reach their spawning grounds near Oliver, B.C., Okanagan sockeye must pass 9 hydroelectric dams during their 1200 km migration from the ocean.
Okanagan Sockeye are one of only two remaining viable sockeye populations in the entire Columbia Basin. They are the only salmon that still return in significant numbers to the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River, but there were once several species of salmon that made their annual migration to the waters of the Okanagan ecosystem.
Presently Okanagan sockeye only have access to Osoyoos Lake, south of Skaha Lake, where warm surface waters and hypoxic deep waters in the late summer create a shortage of available habitat for juvenile and adult sockeye. Access to the cooler, deeper water of Skaha Lake is expected to increase the long-term survival of salmon at both ends of the life cycle.
Cultural Significance
"Although the project is scientifically designed, the reintroduction of sockeye into Skaha Lake holds strong cultural values for the Okanagan Nation, whose traditional knowledge places salmon, including sockeye, as far north in the basin as Okanagan Lake" says Deana Machin, Fisheries Program Manager.
Okanagan Nation members place significant emphasis upon the Chaptikwl, teaching stories used to pass on traditional ecological knowledge from generation to generation. While the Chaptikwl for the Columbia River and its tributaries tells of how Sen’klip (Coyote) brought salmon to the Okanagan River Basin, the Okanagan people have also taken responsibility for balancing their indigenous teachings with current scientific knowledge.
Established in 1995, the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) fisheries department has been a leader in salmon restoration within Okanagan Territory. The group has worked diligently to develop partnerships with the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection (MWLAP) and other non-governmental organizations.
The reintroduction of sockeye into their former habitat is part of an effort to rebuild the Okanagan Basin using a multi-species, ecosystem-based approach. 2004 is the pilot year of a planned 12-year initiative to reintroduce sockeye back into their historic habitat. The project includes a post-release monitoring and evaluation program to investigate interactions between sockeye and kokanee populations in Skaha Lake.
Prior to the reintroduction, the ONA conducted three years of exhaustive research to evaluate the feasibility of reintroducing sockeye into their former habitat in Skaha Lake. Project studies and results were thoroughly reviewed by the respective government agencies responsible for salmon fisheries.
In 2003, an estimated 14,000-16,000 sockeye returned to spawn in the Okanagan River. Okanagan sockeye are considered at risk and face extirpation (local extinction) within the next 20 years if immediate action is not taken to stabilize and rebuild the population.
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