Gosh the lake is full of them as standalone said, maybe they are just beginning fishers.
Pikeminnow removal at Cultus slow to get going
Chris Good (left) and Dusty Diack chop pikeminnow in half and toss them back into Cultus Lake Thursday morning.
Fraser Valley
The pikeminnow of Cultus Lake refused to cooperate at first.
Under the guidance of captain Regan Birch, a purse-seining crew could be seen cruising back and forth over the known spawning areas of the lake looking for the fish over the past week or so.
They dropped the large net 20 to 25 feet down, and as much 45 feet.
They were on the hunt for emerging schools of the smolt-eating Northern pikeminnow, using "echo sounders" to pick up the underwater acoustics and quantify biomass.
"The fish aren't cooperating at all," said Captain Birch on the dock during a rainy and cool Tuesday morning, when the lake temperature was just edging above 15 degrees. "It just may take some time."
This is the fourth year of concerted pikeminnow removal, as part of the Cultus Lake Sockeye recovery strategy.
The local sockeye population has been whittled down to about 1,000 spawners, through a combination of overfishing, pollution and habitat degradation. Hatchery enhancement using captive broodstock of the lake-spawning sockeye is in effect. But the overall recovery goal is to raise the number of Cultus sockeye to 20,000 through a range of hopeful methods.
Pikeminnow started rising from the cool depths of the lake to spawn, as the lake temperatures started going up late this week.
Several days into this spring's assault on the pikeminnow, the fishing crew finally removed 357 fish in one net — after days of no results. It was the biggest scoop in one shot, near Jade Bay on Thursday morning.
But the ambitious project goal is to remove more than half of the pikeminnow population in the lake, estimated to be in the 80,000 to 90,000 range, said Dave Barrett, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Table Society.
Any bycatch that comes up, like trout, kokanee or Dolly Varden char, will be scooped back into the lake with a dip net. Meanwhile the pikeminnow are counted, measured, and checked for gender. Then the crew members cut them in half and throw them back into the lake.
"We want to complete the pikeminnow removal in as few years as possible," Barrett said, when asked how long the predator removal project would take. They hope to take out 20,000 animals per year, said the fisheries biologist.
"The working theory is that they're preying on sockeye smolts."
Anecdotal evidence from the sportfishing community is that higher numbers of kokanee and trout are being caught by anglers, which bolsters the theory that predator removal is starting to work at Cultus Lake, Barrett added.
"So we think there's been an increase in smolt survival, or enough to encourage us to continue," he said.
The Salmon Table Society, a non-governmental organization, has undertaken the $80,000 pikeminnow project on behalf of a partnership between the Commercial Salmon Advisory Board (CSAB) and local First Nations, as part of an integrated Fraser River sockeye salmon management plan with other stakeholders.
The pikeminnow removal efforts to date have removed about 45,000 of the voracious predators in three years.
"But they keep reproducing," Barrett emphasized.
In the long-term it's hoped some of the projects will create stewardship and training opportunities, as well as jobs for the Soowahlie First Nation members.
So far one of the most positive aspects is the cooperation shown by the varied stakeholders around the Salmon Table, he said. First Nations reps are working in tandem with commercial reps around the Salmon table, as are conservation and sportfishing reps.
"I think it's really exciting," he noted about the partnership that's driving the Cultus sockeye recovery effort. "It's still early days, but ultimately we will really need a stable funding base."
Although things moved slowly at first, the groups at one point realized they were united around the common goal of helping recovery efforts for the Cultus sockeye.
"A lot of the historical problems seemed to just slip away," Barrett said. "I'm really stoked about this table.
"Some of what they're learning is about salmon biology, but some of it is just about how to get along."
jfeinberg@theprogress.com
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Topic: Pike Minnow Derby At Cultus Lake (Read 25230 times)