Thousands of fry released in fourth annual chinook salmon event

By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG

Nearly 9,000 chinook salmon fry swam free at this year’s salmon release day in Valemount. Organized in tandem with Simpcw First Nation, Tourism Valemount and Prince George-based Spruce City Wildlife Association, the annual event allows locals to watch as salmon are released into Swift Creek with the goal of replenishing the local salmon population.

This year’s event included some changes that will allow organizers to better track growth in the salmon population, said Dustin Snyder, president of the Spruce City Wildlife Association.

Organizers cut off the fry’s adipose fin – a small, fleshy fin three quarters of the way down a fish’s back – a technique that marks hatchery fish. When hatchery fish are caught, fishers send their heads to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who then find a microscopic tag in the fish snout with information on the year the salmon was released and which hatchery it came from, according to Snyder.

“That will give us the information to track their migration route, where they’re getting picked up in fisheries, [and] how many are getting picked up in fisheries,” Snyder said. “That’s something that’s never been done in this area or with stock like this. So this is going to give us really important information to help manage and protect [salmon].”

Additionally, this year volunteers screened the fish for diseases to make sure their offspring will be healthy well into adulthood, Snyder said. This meant terminating some 5,000 to 6,000 eggs produced by a fish with signs of kidney disease, but it ensures the disease will not spread throughout the population, he said.

Having the support of Tourism Valemount and Simpcw First Nation is a crucial part of organizing the salmon release, Snyder added. Simpcw First Nation Councillor Tina Donald played a key role in promoting and organizing the release, he said.

“Last year was a prime example: we didn’t have as big of an adult return as we were hoping for, and the fish all seemed to be hiding in this big pool,” Snyder recounted. “Tina and her partner brought up one of their traditional fishing nets, and that’s how we caught all of our brood last year. Without that partnership and without that traditional knowledge and knowledge-sharing, I’m not confident we would have got our brood last year.”

In an interview with The Goat, Donald said she appreciates the collaboration that goes into making the salmon release possible.

“One of my grandmothers always said many hands make light work,” Donald said. “When we work together [for] the benefit of the fish instead of trying to do it all [alone], you can get a lot done.”

The task of replenishing Chinook salmon in Swift Creek could take several life cycles of the fish, according to Donald – since chinook salmon live up to nine years, it could take decades for their population to recover. 

The life of a salmon is fraught with danger, from predators to turbulent waters. Before the release of the fry, Donald made a tobacco offering to ask for the protection of the fish on their journeys.

“We believe there’s water spirits, and we ask the creator – that’s who I pray to, and I let people know to pray to whoever they pray to – to wish these fish a safe journey, avoid all those predators, and hopefully make it to the ocean and come back as an adult,” she said. 

Donald added that the years of work will allow Simpcw First Nation and other organizations to solidify their partnerships.

“I truly enjoy being a part of what’s happening here today,” she said. “It shows the work that we do in the partnerships, because that’s what Simpcw is all about, is creating those partnerships.”