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[redside1]

Just saw this on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100007804059034/videos/622292052559746/

Delete if not allowed, but I find it kind of annoying that they choose to build it during the summer during the sockeye run where so many groups are dependent on it. I guess the water level is lower, but right in the middle of the sockeye run? Would March not be better (Ice?) due to freshet not quite hitting yet and very minimal salmon (if any) in the river at that point?

Who knows, I don't work in oil and gas 🤷‍♀️

this has zero affect on Fraser sockeye migrating past Hope.
steelhead all spawn starting March, fry are trying to come out of the gravel. Nothing is spawning yet in the coquihalla so now is the time to do the dirty work. Wait a few more weeks then what ever makes up the lower river salmon run  might start spawning.

[redside1]

DFO, in their infinite wisdom, has set the construction window for instream works to a couple weeks in August, saying that this is the window of least impact. This is for all construction projects in the lower mainland at least. They do not appear to consider that different watercourses may have different run timing.

Name a lower mainland river with spawning anything in early August.
Some may have salmon/trout/steelhead in the river now, just not spawning yet, soon maybe just not in the first couple of weeks in August.
Not too sure about Northern pike minnows or any other species of coarse fish though.

[Cyanescens]

did I say there was spawning going on in august? I simply made reference to the lazy, one size fits all approach. even if they arent spawning yet, doing this kind of instream work is clearly detrimental to the salmon that are in the river. maybe for some rivers, like the coq, there is no good time to be open trenching through it. in that case they should pony up for alternate crossing methods, ie pipe bridge or tunnel under, instead of the relatively cheap open trench method.

[Rodney]

Name a lower mainland river with spawning anything in early August.
Some may have salmon/trout/steelhead in the river now, just not spawning yet, soon maybe just not in the first couple of weeks in August.
Not too sure about Northern pike minnows or any other species of coarse fish though.

Pikeminnow life matters too!

The window for in-stream work is August and the first half of September when impact is at its minimum, but it doesn't look pretty for sure. The concern isn't really on sockeye salmon, but on summer steelhead, both adults that are returning right now as well as juveniles that have been rearing (the same fish which were devastated by the flood last November). And of course also all the smaller species that people can't see, from lamprey to suckers. That is the environmental cost whenever work like this is done. The real question is, what will be done to mitigate these damages after the work is completed.

[salmonrook]

A good article on CBC about some dead spawners on the Coquihalla as  a result of the construction .
The work should be done when the presence of fish is lowest not when the water is lowest.
The Coquihalla hasnt been the same since the highway construction in the 80's
.
Hopefully this creates some action by DFO , its sad that this river has been forgotten and the once great steelhead and trout fishery has been so adversely affected .

[RalphH]

I fished the Coq in August back when the highway was being built and after. That is main time the river is open so fishing is likely hopeless. It is true the runs declined in the years following the highway  and there was a steep decline from around 92 that lasted several years.  It also happened in many streams at the time including a complete collapse of the east shore streams on Vancouver Island. The Coq' has had some decent & even good returns in the last  20 or so years since but most biologists familiar with it think it's productivity was permanently reduced by the highway and the previous pipeline construction. What's going on there now can't make it any better. It's a pity we are throwing so much of our environment out the window for something we likely will be using much less of within 30 years.

[Chum Slayer]

Perhaps it could turn into a good rainbow trout fishery, instead of a salmon or steelhead fishery.

[wildmanyeah]

Just call it gravel removed for flood protection that’s what everyone else does lol

[ratfish]

So I went to where the coquihalla meets the fraser river this morning to take a look out of curiosity. I saw three ripe and ready to spawn socks in the coq just a few hundred meters from the fraser. Why would they be here? Is it possible kawkawa lake supports a sockeye run? Or are these lost sockeye that are just looking for anyplace to spawn. I tried to go near the worksite but couldn't find a way to get close. 

[wildmanyeah]

180k past mission yesterday these are the kind of numbers we need to get an opening

[Chum Slayer]

There are kokanee in Kawkawa Lake so it would make sense for it to support a sockeye run.

[stsfisher]

180k past mission yesterday these are the kind of numbers we need to get an opening

These are the kind of numbers required on the various spawning grounds after they make it past the legal and illegal fishing currently happening.

[RalphH]

A good article on CBC about some dead spawners on the Coquihalla as  a result of the construction .
The work should be done when the presence of fish is lowest not when the water is lowest.
The Coquihalla hasnt been the same since the highway construction in the 80's
.
Hopefully this creates some action by DFO , its sad that this river has been forgotten and the once great steelhead and trout fishery has been so adversely affected .

DFO has no responsibility for steelhead in the coq' (there are also sea-run bulltrout). The Province approved and built the Highway. The steelhead don't spawn until late winter or early spring and bulls in the fall.

I went to where the coquihalla meets the fraser river this morning to take a look out of curiosity. I saw three ripe and ready to spawn socks in the coq

this is something that happens in years of sustained high water in the late spring and early summer. Some sockeye are exhausted by the water velocity in the canyon, drop down towards hope and look to enter just about any tributary to spawn. i am not aware of any sockeye that spawn in Kawkawa creek and I thought the Kokanee were introduced and not native. Perhaps Rod knows more on the topic of sockeye running up the Coq.

These are the kind of numbers required on the various spawning grounds after they make it past the legal and illegal fishing currently happening.

Most of the sockeye that have passed or are passing Mission also have to pass the Big Bar slide.

[stsfisher]

Most of the sockeye that have passed or are passing Mission also have to pass the Big Bar slide.

Yes many barriers to over come along the journey.

[Rodney]

August 12th update.
https://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=263753&ID=all