Pacific Northwest Wild Salmon News Watch from August 16 to August 22, 2014

A recap of Pacific Northwest Wild Salmon News Items we found of interest from August 16 to August 22, 2014

by Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News, posted Aug 22, 2014

...Earlier estimates predicted a massive run of 70 million. But that number’s been scaled back. Still, the numbers have been encouraging. According to Fisheries, the early Stuart run is estimated at 233,000; the early summer run is estimated at 2.2 million; and the summer run is estimated at 6.3 million sockeye. Numbers from the late summer run, the largest portion of the Fraser River sockeye, are still not in.

National Post, Brian Hutchinson | August 18, 2014

...The Fraser’s recreational fishery opened two weeks ago, after being on hiatus. Gold rush on the water: Sockeye is mankind’s preferred salmon species, and as luck — and other indiscernible factors — would have it, the coveted fish are returning in droves to the Fraser after three years in open water.

 

By  Global News, August 19, 2014

OSOYOOS – It’s shaping up to be to be the largest return since 1938, when the salmon count first began, and all that sockeye is found in Osoyoos Lake.

 

 Stephen Hume: The mighty chinook is back

By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun columnist August 19, 2014

CAMPBELL RIVER — The Boston Whalers come slapping across the turbulent eddies of Seymour Narrows to the floats below historic Painter’s Lodge at precisely 10 a.m. and the excitement in marine operations manager Dwayne Mustard’s voice is irrepressible...But thanks to a combination of sound management, investment in habitat restoration and fortuitous ocean conditions, the chinook, B.C.’s legendary game fish, is back at Campbell River.

CHEK News, Posted date: August 18, 2014

Nile Creek is a tiny waterway near Bowser but it’s filling up fast with Pink Salmon. Over 200,000 returned last year and even more are possible this year. The creek was deemed dead and void of salmon in the 1950′s and 60′s but 22 years of work by the Nile Creek Enhancement Society is paying off.

 

UBC Media Release | August 21, 2014

Sockeye salmon that sprint to spawning grounds through fast-moving waters may be at risk, suggests new research by University of British Columbia scientists. When salmon encounter turbulent, fast-moving water–such as rapids or areas downstream of dams—they must move upstream using a behaviour known as “burst swimming” that is similar to sprinting for humans. “Days after sockeye passed through extremely fast-moving water, we started to see fish dying only a short distance from their spawning grounds,” said Nicholas Burnett, a research biologist at UBC and lead author of the study, published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology..

Returns below average due to 'environmental factor,' but better than 2013 numbers

Martin Wissmath / Alberni Valley Times, August 20, 2014

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada is trying to discover why projected chinook salmon returns from the Robertson Creek Hatchery are below average again this year.

 

Concern has been expressed about where all the Alouette sockeye have gone to.

Christopher Sun / Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times

Times Live, Dominic Skelton | 19 August, 2014

A company called Whooshh Innovations has developed a ‘Salmon Cannon’ for speeding the fish along their uphill battle for survival.

 

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