Salmon pen project, known as the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative, has been cancelled

[PEETZcanada]

The South Vancouver Island Anglers Coalition (SVIAC) salmon pen project, known as the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative, has been cancelled for 2025. This decision came after the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) – Nitinat Hatchery notified SVIAC in late November of the previous year that they would be unable to provide smolts for the project in 2025. This inability was due to a lower than expected Chinook egg take at the Nitinat Hatchery, coupled with DFO data indicating lower than desirable returns to the Sooke River. SVIAC remains optimistic about restarting the project in spring 2026 with DFO and Nitinat Hatchery support.


The cancellation of this project is anticipated to have several negative impacts:

Impacts on Whales​

• Reduced Food Availability: The "Feeding Our Endangered Orcas Initiative," which the SVIAC project is a part of, aims to significantly increase large adult Chinook salmon in the Juan de Fuca Strait to provide food for local killer whales during their key pre-winter feeding time. Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW), specifically the J, K, and L pods, are endangered, and a lack of food is considered one of the primary reasons for their declining numbers, alongside pollutants and vessel noise.
• Loss of Preferred Prey: Chinook salmon are a key prey species for SRKW, particularly from May to October when their diets are predominantly Chinook in Canadian critical habitat. SRKW show selectivity towards Chinook salmon that have high lipid content and large body size, specifically those greater than 75 cm fork length. They positively select for Fraser River Spring 52, Summer 52, and Summer 41 stocks, which have above-average lipid content and migrate early. The SVIAC project aimed to increase salmon availability for SRKW and Northern Resident Killer Whales (NRKW). The cancellation means a loss of this enhanced food source for endangered orcas.
• Interruption to Recovery Efforts: DFO itself has identified a key salmon foraging area off Otter Point as part of its 2024/2025 SRKW Recovery Plan. The SVIAC project directly supported this by increasing returning Chinook salmon to the Sooke area, benefiting the SRKW. The interruption of this project, which explicitly raises Chinook to augment the SRKW's food source, directly counteracts efforts to improve prey availability. SRKW are known to have poor body condition in the spring, and increasing large, mature Chinook salmon during this period is seen as a strategy to help.

Salmon Abundance Loss​

• Significant Reduction in Released Smolts: The SVIAC project has been a substantial contributor to Chinook salmon populations. In the past seven years, the program has fed and released 4.2 million hatchery Chinook salmon into the Sooke Basin. Other sources state that as of April 2022, 3.15 million smolts had been released, and by April 2023, four million healthy fish had been released. The cancellation for 2025 means a halt to these efforts. For example, in 2023, the plan was to release 650,000 Chinook fry in two batches. The annual target for future releases was 2,000,000 smolts per year.
• Future Impact on Returns: The cancellation in 2025 will lead to a "future interruption to returning Chinook salmon to the Sooke River in 4 years". This directly translates to fewer adult Chinook salmon returning to the Sooke area that would have originated from this project.
• Contradictory DFO Stance: Anglers highlight a perceived contradiction where DFO states there's a prey availability issue for SRKW, yet they reportedly "said no" to an increase in output from the Nitinat Hatchery, even though it was supported by the Ditidaht First Nation.

Community Impacts​

• Economic Hardship for Local Communities: The SVIAC project is a community-based initiative supported by local anglers, whale watchers, and many local businesses. Anglers have expressed significant frustration with current "highly restrictive" regulations and closures, which they believe are excessive and impede access to abundant fish stocks, particularly hatchery-origin Chinook. These regulations have caused "great hardship onto communities like Port Renfrew, which rely on access to fish as part of their tourist economy". The estimated economic impact of these regulations on Port Renfrew alone is a conservative $26,070,000 over the summer season, not including the long-term loss of businesses and job opportunities, with repercussions potentially extending into the hundreds of millions for the region. The cancellation of the Sooke Chinook Enhancement Initiative means the loss of a key source of locally available Chinook salmon that directly benefited local anglers and fishing charter operators in the Sooke area.
• Volunteer-Driven Initiative: The SVIAC, founded in 2012, is completely volunteer-driven and funded through donations from local businesses and the community. The cancellation impacts these volunteer efforts and community engagement.

Impacts on Aboriginal Fisheries​

• Loss of Harvest Opportunities: The Sooke Chinook Sea Pen Project is a community-based project that includes people from the T’Sou-ke First Nation, and it is supported by local First Nations. The project has the potential to "provide terminal Chinook harvest opportunities for the local T’Sou-ke First Nation". The cancellation for 2025 and the anticipated "future interruption to returning Chinook salmon to the Sooke River in 4 years" would directly reduce these potential harvest opportunities for the T’Sou-ke First Nation.
• Disregard for First Nation Support: The DFO's reported refusal to increase output from the Nitinat Hatchery, despite being supported by the Ditidaht First Nation, indicates a broader issue where First Nation perspectives on salmon enhancement may not be fully adopted.

The SVIAC plans to engage with DFO and the Sooke community to discuss the project's continuance in 2026. They are also planning efforts to remove existing escapement nets and install proper salmon counting fences and cameras on the Sooke River to get more accurate counts of returning Chinook and reduce predation from seals and sea lions, which significantly impacts returning numbers.

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All sources for this post were from DFO, SVIAC, News sources and other internet accessable content.

It's truly time for all fishing sectors to start creating partnerships and to start building long lasting relationships built with a strong respect for one another.