The Okanagan Nation Alliance will be hosting the third Okanagan Sockeye Fry Release into Skaha Lake on Friday May 19th in Penticton.
This is the second year of an experimental 12-year initiative being led by the Okanagan Nation Alliance to reintroduce sockeye back into their historic habitat and migration range after nearly a century of habitat destruction and blocked migration. Approximately 1.2-million sockeye fry were raised from eggs collected from the Okanagan River last fall and will be released into the Okanagan River at Penticton, where the fry will swim downstream to rear in Skaha Lake for one year.
An extensive monitoring and evaluation program will be undertaken to study the sockeye and kokanee interactions in Skaha Lake and to compare sockeye growth in development in Skaha Lake to the growth and development of the existing sockeye population in Osoyoos Lake. The tri-partite Canadian Okanagan Basin Technical Working Group (COBTWG) whose membership includes Fisheries and Oceans Canada, BC Ministry of Environment and the Okanagan Nation Alliance, has worked together collaboratively to apply scientific standards and methodologies in the design and assessment of the project.
The ONA has been involved in fostering and developing partnerships for Okanagan Basin fisheries and aquatic habitat restoration with the Colville Confederated Tribes, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the BC Ministry of Environment, and other governmental and non-governmental groups since its fisheries department was established in 1995. Funding for the 2005 broodyear reintroduction of sockeye salmon into Skaha Lake is being co-funded by Grant County Public Utility District and Chelan County Public Utility District as part of their sockeye mitigation requirements for the operation of hydro-electric facilities in the Columbia River.
Author
Topic: Okanagan Sockeye Fry release (Read 1790 times)