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[clarki]

I’ve started volunteering with Arocha https://arocha.ca/what-we-do/conservation/ on a chinook spawner survey on the Little Campbell River. This 3 yr project is a partnership between Arocha, the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club hatchery and DFO. The goal of the project is to inform enhancement and regulatory efforts of LC chinook and recovery planning for Boundary Bay chinook.

One of the purposes of the survey work I’m involved with is a better understanding of the presence of clipped chinook in the river. The hatchery produces and releases chinook, but it hasn’t clipped them for many years. Yet, in the fall, clipped chinook return to the river. Where are these chinook coming from? is one of the questions to be answered.

A couple times a week, teams walk the river, to collect head samples of dead clipped chinook, as well as to record carcass measurements and observations. The collected heads of the clipped chinook will be dissected for the presence of a coded wire tag (CWT). The CWT will tell us what other rivers the stray clipped chinook originated from.

I walked the river yesterday and, in the reach we were on, we recovered 10 chinook carcasses, 2 of which were clipped. The 2 clipped fish were both jacks. Interestingly, the remaining 8 fish were mostly bucks and many were unspawned, or partially spawned. I wondered if the drought delayed their migration enough that it affected their ability to spawn successfully? During yesterday’s walk there were still many chinook in the river. River walks will continue until late November in order to recover as many as possible.

I’ll report back when we get the 2022 CWT data back from DFO.

Cheers.

[dennisK]

Good stuff Scott; please keep us appraised. Thank you.

[RalphH]

I believe most hatchery raised chinook released in Washington State are clipped. Canada agreed to do the same in the latest edition of the Pacific Salmon Treaty but has not as yet acquired the equipment to do so.

[clarki]

My understanding is that US hatcheries clip all chinook, whereas Canadian hatcheries only clip chinook with an embedded CWT and that the Semiahmoo hatchery started clipping their chinook this year.

[Tylsie]

Are these fish adipose clipped? The Semiahmoo hatchery used to clip pelvic fins, alternating left and right with even and odd years to establish a base line for when the fish were returning, 3 years or 4. That is going back well over a decade ago, probably two now, from when the Boundary Bay stocks were not well studied. I can remember the old timers (not many around anymore, miss them) at the Boundary Bay hatcheries using a slang term, "Boundary Bay Pinks," to describe the Chinook in those rivers as there meat was very distinct. Between these American fish, and all the strains that were introduced to rebuild stocks that pure strain is probably long gone now though

[Dave]

I’ve started volunteering with Arocha https://arocha.ca/what-we-do/conservation/ on a chinook spawner survey on the Little Campbell River. This 3 yr project is a partnership between Arocha, the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club hatchery and DFO. The goal of the project is to inform enhancement and regulatory efforts of LC chinook and recovery planning for Boundary Bay chinook.

One of the purposes of the survey work I’m involved with is a better understanding of the presence of clipped chinook in the river. The hatchery produces and releases chinook, but it hasn’t clipped them for many years. Yet, in the fall, clipped chinook return to the river. Where are these chinook coming from? is one of the questions to be answered.

A couple times a week, teams walk the river, to collect head samples of dead clipped chinook, as well as to record carcass measurements and observations. The collected heads of the clipped chinook will be dissected for the presence of a coded wire tag (CWT). The CWT will tell us what other rivers the stray clipped chinook originated from.

I walked the river yesterday and, in the reach we were on, we recovered 10 chinook carcasses, 2 of which were clipped. The 2 clipped fish were both jacks. Interestingly, the remaining 8 fish were mostly bucks and many were unspawned, or partially spawned. I wondered if the drought delayed their migration enough that it affected their ability to spawn successfully? During yesterday’s walk there were still many chinook in the river. River walks will continue until late November in order to recover as many as possible.

I’ll report back when we get the 2022 CWT data back from DFO.

Cheers.

The pre spawning mortality you document could be a stress related problem ie. low, warm water.  This is common with sockeye when subjected to high or warm water and is a major cause of straying.  Thing is straying sockeye, due to their life history, have little chance of spawning recruitment but coastal chinook may be different.

[clarki]

Are these fish adipose clipped?

The ones that we are recovering are adipose clipped. If you are referring to how the hatchery has begun clipping their chinook. Don't know...yet. I'll know better as my involvement with the project deepens.

[salmonrook]

I work  at the LC hatchery as a volunteer and can tell you that all the chinook that are hatchery are clipped .
The run to the hatchery for this year is almost done and the numbers always favour the wild .
I assume because the wild Chinook have to be released .
 They used to clip the pelvic fin but they found this affected the  mobility of the fish .
 Obviously now its the adipose , same with the Coho

[salmonrook]

I believe most hatchery raised chinook released in Washington State are clipped. Canada agreed to do the same in the latest edition of the Pacific Salmon Treaty but has not as yet acquired the equipment to do so.

All the Chinook smolts this year were nose tagged , the Little Campbell  released 42,000  they were all adipose fin  clipped as well .
This is done every year  .
I took part in the clipping of the Coho along with the many other  volunteers .

[clarki]

I work  at the LC hatchery as a volunteer and can tell you that all the chinook that are hatchery are clipped .
The run to the hatchery for this year is almost done and the numbers always favour the wild .
I assume because the wild Chinook have to be released .
 They used to clip the pelvic fin but they found this affected the  mobility of the fish .
 Obviously now its the adipose , same with the Coho

Looks like we a working at different ends of the same project!

My understanding is that the hatchery only recently started clipping chinook (in fact this may be the first for that) and for the adult morts we are surveying this year, any clipped chinook are not LC origin.

You’re saying that’s not the case?

[colin6101]

I don't know the exact year, but the freshwater salmon supplement has outlined that LC chinooks have had to be hatchery clipped for retention for quite a few years now.

[salmonrook]

Looks like we a working at different ends of the same project!

My understanding is that the hatchery only recently started clipping chinook (in fact this may be the first for that) and for the adult morts we are surveying this year, any clipped chinook are not LC origin.

You’re saying that’s not the case?

  We are !
  Coho and Chinook are both clipped and when the fish  return the fishing regs state that only the hatchery clipped fish can be kept .
Its a small run and the wild out number the Hatchery fish 5 to one .All the clipped will be Little Campbell origin
 We raised and released 42, 000.   good for a small hatchery
The hatchery has clipped fish for marking , same as the Chilliwack , for many years at least 5 that I know of .
The exception being one year because of covid (of course )
 This year DFO  nose tagged all 42, 000 for tracking
 Will be interesting to see where they go after 3 or 4 years

[clarki]

  The hatchery has clipped fish for marking , same as the Chilliwack , for many years at least 5 that I know of .

That's interesting... I was told (or at least my understanding is) that the hatchery has not clipped chinook for many years, that this is the first year that they have, and any clipped fish that we encounter are strays.

But you would have first hand knowledge on the subject!

I've gone back to my project lead to understand what's missing.

Cheers.

[RalphH]

Best I know there is no mass marking of hatchery chinook in BC though Canada has committed to do so as I mentioned above. mass marking of chinook is done by machine. The LC is the only stream in Region 2 that allows retention of marked chinook only.

[salmonrook]

The Chinook this year were imbedded with the CWT , its done by a machine and this was done by DFO who attended the hatchery
At the same time they did the adipose clipping .
 Unfortunately I wasnt there the day they did this but was part of the Coho clipping
There are  a number of wild chinooks in the LC run every year  ,only clipped Chinooks can be kept when fishing .
Retention ended in Oct 15th