Skeena Tyee Test Fishery 

Reading the Index

The Tyee Test Fishery indices are an indication of the size of the return entering the Skeena River. This test gillnet fishery has been going on in the same fashion since 1955, and so the index can be compared from year to year to see how the runs compare. The multiplier used to expand the index into an escapement estimate is calibrated for sockeye every year, using the actual count obtained from the Babine counting fence. For other species, it is generally felt that there is no number that you can multiply the index by to find the exact escapement, we use it for a relative abundance indicator only.

The first column of any year shows the daily index. This index is based on how many fish were caught that day and would roughly be equal to the number of fish caught per hour fished. The second column is the "Cum Index", which stands for Cumulative Index, and is a running total of all the indices of that year, added together. Now, if you refer back to the column between 1999 and 2000, you will see the "90's Avg. Cum. Index" which is the 10 year average of the cumulative indexes for any given date. That way, you can refer to the current year, and compare it to the average.

Due to various funding pressures over the years, we have ended the Tyee Test Fishery on different dates. In recent years, we have been able to extend it into October, but many years it ended prior to that date.