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[TayC]

During my bushwacking travels this weekend on Vedder/Chilliwack I came across some very unusual sightings that I have never seen before. I had come across many large dead white springs that seemed to be dragged atleast 5-10 feet off shore and even a couple up on a 7ft bank, they were in groups of 3s, 2s or all alone.  The wierd thing however was that on every one of them the top halves of their heads were cut off and taken away.  Basically it was a clean cut (im guessing by a large/sharp blade) going straight down through the head to where the corner of the mouth is and the bottom jaw left on. There were a mix of males and females, none had been gutted not even the does. The springs had no claw marks on them so I am ruling out any bear/cat activity.

Am I going crazy or has anyone else come across this?
Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?

Every one i have explained this too are just as stumped as I am.

I would have snapped some pics but didnt have a camera on hand.

[NiceFish]

I have seen this before, its fish counters so they are marked off and won't be counted twice, a measure to keep estimates accurate

[TayC]

I have seen this before, its fish counters so they are marked off and won't be counted twice, a measure to keep estimates accurate

Thanks for the info!

[canso]

they count the dead fish on the side of the river

[silver ghost]

The group that I count fish with use a machete and chop em in half.  Could they be looking for those pin chips that are inserted in the heads of fish?That would explain why the top of the head is missing but I think they only put them in clipped fish?

Exactly what I thought. I don't know exactly what goes on at the hatchery regarding the clipping of chinook, but I have noticed a trend in other rivers that hatcheries release chinook fry that are too young o be clipped...but not too young to be wire tagged? Maybe, just speculating as I too had thought only clipped fish get tagged.

[jon5hill]

they are taking heads to scan for coded wire tags.

[Dave]

During my bushwacking travels this weekend on Vedder/Chilliwack I came across some very unusual sightings that I have never seen before. I had come across many large dead white springs that seemed to be dragged atleast 5-10 feet off shore and even a couple up on a 7ft bank, they were in groups of 3s, 2s or all alone.  The wierd thing however was that on every one of them the top halves of their heads were cut off and taken away.  Basically it was a clean cut (im guessing by a large/sharp blade) going straight down through the head to where the corner of the mouth is and the bottom jaw left on. There were a mix of males and females, none had been gutted not even the does. The springs had no claw marks on them so I am ruling out any bear/cat activity.

Am I going crazy or has anyone else come across this?
Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?

Every one i have explained this too are just as stumped as I am.

I would have snapped some pics but didnt have a camera on hand.

You have observed  DFO’s Chilliwack River chinook stock assessment crew in action.  They count, cut carcasses (sometimes; these are big fish) and often remove otoliths , an inner ear bone from the skull area to determine the fish’s age in designated areas of the system.
Jon, I may be wrong (Buck?) but I don’t think Chilliwack chinooks are CWTagged.

[TheChumWhisperer]

Fish head soup??

[66TWH]

correct me if im wrong but this sparked my memory of an episode of "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe and they were on the Vedder doing exactly this. Maybe it could be found online.     

[Nitroholic]

correct me if im wrong but this sparked my memory of an episode of "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe and they were on the Vedder doing exactly this. Maybe it could be found online.     

That was on some river in California iirc

[buck]

 Dave, approximately 400 k chinook are marked annually from the hatchery. 200k ad/clipped cwt and 200k cwt only. Double index marking was under taken to determine  survival rates between the two groups. There is some evidence that the ad clipped group survive at a lower rate.

[Dave]

Thanks buck - knew you'd know
Apologies Jon

[Geff_t]

I have seen the top half of heads missing on fish but they were eaten by coyotes and bears.

[TayC]

I have seen the top half of heads missing on fish but they were eaten by coyotes and bears.

I have heard of this as well but these were clean cuts, as stated probably with a machete

[BigFisher]

Fish count, I see it all along the harrison during the fall. Its one hell of a job!