SEP Community Workshop 2021 Registration

Starting 9:00am May 29 to Sunday, May 30, 2021

Planning Team: Maple Creek Streamkeepers, Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society (KEEPS), Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Streamkeepers Federation

Questions and Answers

Fish ID

Would Chinook stay in the stream for a year until smolt size?
Many chinook do stay in freshwater for a year before spending several weeks or months as smolts in the estuary. On the lower Fraser, most migrate out as 3 month old fry, and can sometimes be found in lower Kanaka tributaries during this time for feeding and cleaning their gills.
Do Sockeye get their red colour from the plankton?
The red flesh of sockeye indeed does come from their diet, which is rich in carotenoids.
Where can I get this book? The identification books.
The Field Identification Guide for Juvenile Pacific Salmon the excellent pocket sized line drawing book, is available from Fisheries and Oceans Canada
The Field Identification of Coastal Juvenile Salmonids, by Pollard/Hartman/Groot/Edgell is available from Dean at Dynamic Aqua Supply and online at large book retailers
Are the numbers of stream walkers in decline? I seem to recall a recent article about this and concerns about how to get assessments of smaller, remote streams.
Speaking from the Kanaka point of view, Fisheries and Oceans resumed fall salmon enumeration surveys a few years ago. Many very small tributaries however are not surveyed, unless local volunteers take it on.

Stock Assessment

Does DOF take PNI into account when they determine the permissible number of fish than can be hatched in small, private run fish hatcheries
The use of PNI is a relatively new tool for hatchery management and you should talk to the SEP staff about the details on this.
We (Seymour) sample Coho broodstock. Is there a way to find out our RRS or PNI to see how we are doing?
If you are mass marking the Coho from Seymour and getting data on natural spawner numbers it is my understanding you should be able to determine a PNI.
Will the presentation be made available as PDF online
Yes I think the presentations are all available on line presumably you can go back into the workshop home page.

Adam Silverstein

When will we receive the Salmon Enhancement Report 2019 and how?
Dale Desrochers has already distributed it broadly to the stewardship Community.
It is also available on the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation website at this link.

Dale Desrochers
Acting Regional Manager

SEP CIP/RRU

Are there funds in the $647 million to fund RRU to do RRU restoration projects?
The Ministers announcement dated June 8, 2021 indicated a commitment to four key pillars, one being conservation and stewardship. Incorporated within this pillar is the creation of a new Restoration Centre of Expertise to help ensure that habitat restoration projects are integrated and more effective. This initiative is expected to build on the existing capacity of the SEP Resource Restoration Unit increasing the programs ability to undertake restorations works in priority areas. A significant portion of funds is expected to support the Restoration Centre of Expertise which include a variety of initiatives including undertaking restoration projects.
How can we do a better job of educating folks & some NGOs that are opposed to ANY hatcheries? We wouldn't have any salmonids in "our" creek without the good work of the staff and volunteers at KEEPS.
To do a better job of education around the effects of hatcheries, it is important for communications to be factual and consistent as well as undertaking necessary assessment of ongoing production to determine effectiveness in achieving objectives. Some factual statements include:
- SEP produces Pacific salmon at enhancement facilities (hatcheries and spawning channels), engages in habitat restoration, and undertakes projects that include public participation by local communities and First Nations in fisheries and watershed stewardship activities.
- SEP also supports salmonid related education and public awareness projects. Approximately 900 classroom incubator projects support education and public awareness.
- SEP enhancement facilities include 23 projects operated by DFO, 19 Community Development Projects operated under contribution agreement by First Nations and communities, and 97 licensed Public Involvement Projects operated by volunteers. An additional 228 volunteer groups carry out non-hatchery enhancement activities.
- Enhanced salmon provide economic, social, and cultural harvest opportunities for commercial, recreational, and First Nations harvesters.
- They also support vulnerable stock rebuilding and contribute to stock assessment commitments within DFO's Pacific Region and under the Pacific Salmon Treaty with the United States.
- SEP hatcheries produce an average of 293.5 million juveniles annually, and roughly four million adults return from these releases. Juvenile releases from SEP hatcheries according to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission account for 5.8 % of the hatchery releases to the North Pacific; the balance of releases occur from hatcheries in the U.S. (38.8%), Japan (36.2%), and Russia (20.3%).
- SEP has prepared, applied, and refined operational guidelines and best practices since the program inception. For example, SEP hatcheries have followed detailed genetic management guidelines since 1985; these guidelines have been updated regularly as new knowledge became available, most recently in 2019(DFO 2019, Draft).
- SEP utilizes planning frameworks it has developed to guide program management and decision-making for hatcheries. These documents address production planning (DFO 2018a), management of biological risk (DFO 2013) and biological assessment of SEP fish production (DFO 2019). These guidance pieces, together with the Wild Salmon Policy, operational guidelines and best management practices (DFO 2016), provide a consistent program-level management structure.
- SEP utilizes a detailed production planning process to develop the annual enhancement plan for each SEP facility. This annual cross-sector process is undertaken for each group of intended releases and involves setting juvenile release strategies, and most appropriate numbers to produce the number of adults desired to meet specific objectives. This planning process also considers species interactions, effects on existing stocks, harvest, habitat capacity, project capacity, and overall Conservation Unit objectives (DFO 2019).
- Every SEP enhancement facility is licensed under the Pacific Aquaculture Regulations. The licence outlines production targets and prescriptive conditions on all aspects of hatchery operation, particularly with respect to fish health management. The conditions of licence under which each SEP facility operates is that all hatcheries follow standard fish health operating procedures.
What happens to ocean going salmon survival over the Coquitlam dam?
Over 100 years ago coho salmon of the Coquitlam River were affected by the hydroelectric project to bring electricity to Vancouver. The Port Coquitlam and District Hunting and Fishing Club in collaboration with the Kwikwetlem First Nation, BC Hydro, Metro Vancouver and DFO, undertook the capture and transport of 100 coho adults for release above the dam along lakeshore and adjacent creeks. Currently ocean survival conditions are relatively low for all salmon species making an estimation for the low number of sockeye smolts leaving this watershed difficult to predict. Regardless, all parties involved in this initiative are hopeful that these efforts lead to further actions that support the return of sockeye to the Coquitlam River.

Ryan Galbraith

What are the effects of hatchery salmon on wild salmon?
Canada's Policy for the Conservation of Wild Pacific Salmon (the Wild Salmon Policy) recognizes SEP's role in the Pacific Region, acknowledging that enhancement activities contribute a significant proportion of salmon produced in some watersheds in British Columbia and the Yukon, and that SEP fish production may be used to provide harvest opportunities, stock assessment information, rebuild and conserve populations, and create stewardship and public education opportunities. The WSP also notes that enhancement, particularly hatcheries, poses some acknowledged risks to wild salmon. Wild populations harvested with more productive enhanced populations may be overexploited. Hatchery practices may alter genetic diversity. Wild salmon may have to compete with enhanced salmon for food and space in the marine and freshwater environments. SEP employs practices to minimize genetic, ecological, and disease risks arising at each stage of the enhancement process (i.e. from the collection of brood stock through to the release of juveniles). More information can be found in the Community Involvement Program Best Management Practices Guide and A Biological Risk Management Framework for Enhancing Salmon in the Pacific Region.

Information on Piscine Orthoreovirus (PRV) on the west coast can be found here
The website gives a general overview of what is known of PRV. DFO Science Branch is planning on updating the public hatchery component in the next couple of months.