The effects of drought continues to impact the region as Okanagan sockeye broodstock catch is nearly halved
Press Release
Over the last two weeks of October, 2015, as part of the Sockeye Reintroduction Program the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) have been diligently seining and collecting eggs and milt as broodstock for rearing and release in 2016. Since 2014, ONA has been rearing the fry in the new k] cpә’lk’ stim’ Hatchery located on the Penticton Indian Reserve. The overarching goal of broodstock (spawning sockeye salmon) is to stabilize and rebuild the declining wild Okanagan Sockeye salmon population, returning Sockeye to their former habitat and migration range, and to revitalize the Okanagan Nation salmon fishery.
Objectives of ONA’s broodstock include:
- Collecting a predetermined number of adult male and female sockeye spawners, while keeping disturbance of redds and stress levels of captured fish at a minimum.
- Fertilizing, incubating, thermally marking all sockeye, and externally marking a portion of the fry and rearing them to approximately 1 gram in size.
- Determining the frequency or certain pathogens in the spawners during egg collection, and in the fry during hatchery rearing and prior to release.
The initial goal had been to collect between 1-3 million sockeye salmon eggs to rear as fry for the coming year. Due to the impacts of drought and stress on the 2015 Okanagan sockeye salmon run the k] cpә’lk’ stim’ Hatchery received 485,032 sockeye salmon eggs, less than half the original goal. These eggs came from two different broodstock collections sites (Penticton channel weir and Oliver) from a total of 239 females. Due to the lower number of broodstock collected, the hatchery will not be operating at full capacity this year. This ultimately means we will be releasing less sockeye fry than we have the previous year (1.7 million). However, overall job at the Hatchery remains the same, which is producing the healthiest fish for release in 2016.
As part of an educational field trip students from Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School attended the broodstock collection at the biosampling site, and participated by singing to the salmon. ONA, 2015.
Media contact:
Tara Montgomery
Communications
Okanagan Nation Alliance
250.707.0095 ext 120
TMontgomery@syilx.org
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