[5] BC Fishers Keep Fingers Crossed Over Fraser Summer Sockeye Run
This year's Fraser sockeye run has been so poor that commercial fishing has not been allowed to make sure that enough fish are reaching spawning grounds hundreds of miles upstream.
The early run headed for the Stuart, a Fraser tributary, started off slow and ended up quite late, but reached about 80 percent of its forecast. The early-summer run has also been slow to materialize, but its size was bumped up to about 300,000 fish on Aug. 19. However, that's still about 42 percent below the forecast.
The summer run was downgraded last week from about 11 million fish to somewhat more than 3 million. But that estimate was boosted yesterday to 4.5 million after the latest test fishing showed another large pulse of fish heading for the Fraser.
The commission's latest press release said low returns may be due to "high ocean temperatures during a portion of their marine residence period, which likely had a negative impact on their growth and juvenile-to-adult survival rate." The commission said the fishes' small size and warm marine conditions are "likely contributing to their apparent marine timing this season." More than half the returning Fraser run may be heading around the northern side of Vancouver Island and down the inside passage, a typical migration route during El Nino years.
Pink salmon are beginning to show, with test fishing at moderate catch levels. About 16 million Fraser pinks are expected. The commission says it may be able to come up with an in-season run estimate in two weeks.
Flows in the Fraser are 23 percent below average for this time of year, and temperatures were nearly 19 degrees C, about one and one-half degrees above average. -B. R.
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