Rock slide in Fraser River, B.C., may hinder salmon passage

StormTrooper said:
If it's so hard to solve due to lack of funds, just pretend the fish are a corporation and grease em up with some corporate welfare.

Trudeau does not give a single flying Fff_*k about the west, BC, saving it's fish, ensuring First Nations food security or the communities and all the people that depend upon legitimate business revenue that is created year after year from bountiful fisheries opportunities.

One of the last great Western Canadian resources and Trudeau sees more value in supporting MasterCard, Canadian Tire, and other big highly profitable entities instead.

He sure is looking & acting like a pirate these days...robbing all Canadians of their futures right before their very eyes. True.

https://torontosun-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeaus-gift-of-your-money-to-mastercard/amp?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE=#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeaus-gift-of-your-money-to-mastercard
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50 million for MasterCard and all Trudeau can come up with to save our upper Fraser salmon stocks from Extinction isn't even a half of that! This doesn't even take into account the social or economic impacts! Pathetic!
 
If Trudeau had zero seats in BC like AB & SK you better believe he would be giving BC attention. A full shut out in the west would have sent a BIG message.

The 2019 election gave consent to carry on as is..
 
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I’m sure this has been posted here previously but can someone tell us how long chinook salmon fry stay in the fraser after birth? One year, 2 years? I suspect it’s no more than 2 years. Under that principle all the fry from 2013,2014,2015,2016,2017, and possibly 2018 had already exited the Fraser, past the slide and are scheduled to return for the next 4 or 5 years before the slide impacts actual returns right ? I mean basing closures on the rock slide might make sense in 2024, but that slude has nothing to do with what’s coming back each year. That’s all based on ocean survival correct? I understand that slide is a huge problem for fish entering the system now, but it has nothing to do with what’s Coming back for at least the next 5 years. Other species yes, certainly, but not chinook
 
If some percentage, lets say 50%, of the fish can't make it past the slide, or are too exhausted to spawn because of the effort made to get past the slide, then efforts must be made to increase the #'s of adults that make it to the slide. That is my understanding of the logic behind the impending closures and restrictions, it has nothing to do with outgoing smolt migration..
 
These fish were already in very bad shape before the slide. The slide was the nail in the coffin for a lot these stocks.

The closures are more for political reasons to keep the netting to a minimum.
 
All these exhausted fish, where did they end up expiring?
Did they litter the shore from Hope to Langley?
They just seem to have disappeared.!
 
Powerset said:
I’m sure this has been posted here previously but can someone tell us how long chinook salmon fry stay in the fraser after birth? One year, 2 years? I suspect it’s no more than 2 years. Under that principle all the fry from 2013,2014,2015,2016,2017, and possibly 2018 had already exited the Fraser, past the slide and are scheduled to return for the next 4 or 5 years before the slide impacts actual returns right ? I mean basing closures on the rock slide might make sense in 2024, but that slude has nothing to do with what’s coming back each year. That’s all based on ocean survival correct? I understand that slide is a huge problem for fish entering the system now, but it has nothing to do with what’s Coming back for at least the next 5 years. Other species yes, certainly, but not chinook
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Depends on the system. They can leave immediately, after a few months, or after a year.

Downstream migration isnt as taxing, but broadly as others say, the populations have been declining since at least 2015.
 
I know this is an over simplification of the problems with our fishery but like forestry, our salmon is a renewable resource, through proper investment and consultations this mess is fixable. We need hundreds of millions of dollars invested, long overdue, this resource has stopped giving huge profits without investment.
 
Big Bar landslide response information bulletin
February 14 2020

Steady progress at Big Bar landslide site despite weather challenges
Weather continues to be a challenge at the Big Bar landslide site. High winds, fog and snow restricted helicopters moving crews to the East Toe area. Additionally, work was limited on the west brow mesh, for the highline installation and on the southwest face scaling. Despite these challenges crews are making steady progress on:

  • setting up the highline across the river to support upcoming drilling activities;
  • installing safety mesh on the west bank to protect workers;
  • construction of the overland access to the river;
  • drilling on the East Toe in preparation for blasting; and
  • ongoing archeology work.
Additional scalers have been added to the crew to help accelerate work on the west bank protective mesh and to conduct scaling along the overland access. In response to high winds at the landslide site, the highline (which will be used to support access to the East Toe) is being upgraded so that it will be able to withstand higher winds.

Graders and sand trucks continue to maintain the West Pavilion road, the Big Bar Ferry road and the OK Ranch road. Finally, the winch trail was completed this week, with an excavator lowered down the slope.

In-river work environmental plan
In advance of rock blasting work at the Big Bar landslide site that will commence shortly, the environmental in-river work mitigation plan developed by Splitrock Environmental, in collaboration with provincial experts on Interior Fraser steelhead and sturgeon stocks, is being implemented.

  • The overall goal of the plan is to ensure that the in-channel blasting work has the lowest possible impact to fish and fish habitat, while taking the challenging environmental conditions at the site into consideration.
  • The plan consists of a tiered approach. This is based on the calculated blast pressures. It considers any impacts from the blast that are potentially harmful to fish, which could be in holding areas identified by biologists (based on water velocity and temperature).
  • Hydroacoustic monitoring will be performed in areas where potential fish presence overlaps with anticipated blast pressures.
  • Should fish be present, qualified teams will attempt to catch and transport them away from the blast zone. If this is not possible, hazing tactics to scare them away will be initiated.
  • The area downstream of the blast zone will continue to be monitored. The results will be incorporated into the ongoing mitigation strategy for future in-river blasting.
2020-02-14-a.jpg

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2020-02-14-c.jpg


http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/pacifi...lide-eboulement/bulletins/2020-02-14-eng.html
 
Appears that the slide isn't a barrier to migration for the Spring and Summer 5-2 Chinook with over 80% actually migrating successfully past the slide - the main problem(s) still appear to be issues such as; 1) poor ocean survival (these fish migrate way offshore into the warm blob area); 2) summer warm water conditions in fresh water - and being they spend 2 seasons in fresh water are more highly susceptible to climatic change conditions in freshwater; 3) Out migrant predation from pinnipeds and birds - remember these Stream-Type smolts out-migrate as much larger fish than the Ocean-Types....therefore, represent a lot more caloric benefit for the expenditure of energy to catch them if you are a predator....and there is definitely a pattern where Ocean-Type Chinook are fairing far better than their Stream-Type cousins. So, while it would be nice to address the rock slide to improve migration....these fish are DOOMED unless we can find ways to effectively address the main causal factors impacting recovery of this specific stock of Stream-Type Chinook. Fixing the slide has drawn much needed attention and resources away from the real issues and solutions that could actually make a difference.
 
Do you have any data showing that 80% 5-2s make it past the slide?

The biologists and the people involved in the counts in those tributaries would strongly disagree with your statement.
 
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I dont think the percentages are what made it passed the slide. They are the percentage of that run that normally spawns in Watersheds above the slide and will be impacted by the slide.

CRGreg
 
"Appears that the slide isn't a barrier to migration for the Spring and Summer 5-2 Chinook with over 80% actually migrating successfully past the slide"

Really? That is contrary to what I have been told.
People seem fixated with chinooks, and so they should, but don't forget we are talking millions of sockeye that are impacted as well.
 
Did DFO say how many fish actually made it from the Albion counting area to their spawning area?
Did they actually count the return in the Albion and did they physically count the returns in the spawning areas?




searun said:
Appears that the slide isn't a barrier to migration for the Spring and Summer 5-2 Chinook with over 80% actually migrating successfully past the slide - the main problem(s) still appear to be issues such as; 1) poor ocean survival (these fish migrate way offshore into the warm blob area); 2) summer warm water conditions in fresh water - and being they spend 2 seasons in fresh water are more highly susceptible to climatic change conditions in freshwater; 3) Out migrant predation from pinnipeds and birds - remember these Stream-Type smolts out-migrate as much larger fish than the Ocean-Types....therefore, represent a lot more caloric benefit for the expenditure of energy to catch them if you are a predator....and there is definitely a pattern where Ocean-Type Chinook are fairing far better than their Stream-Type cousins. So, while it would be nice to address the rock slide to improve migration....these fish are DOOMED unless we can find ways to effectively address the main causal factors impacting recovery of this specific stock of Stream-Type Chinook. Fixing the slide has drawn much needed attention and resources away from the real issues and solutions that could actually make a difference.
Click to expand...
 
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