Salmon Sport Head Recovery Program  (Brochure)

Also available in PDF.

To order a printed copy of this brochure, please email  pacdfocommunication@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

WANTED: ALL HEADS FROM ADIPOSE
FIN-CLIPPED COHO AND CHINOOK

Anglers: Become Involved!

The sport fishing community plays a crucial role in the recovery of coded-wire tags as more than 500,000 tidal and freshwater recreational licences are sold each year. Coded-wire tags allow Canada to fulfill obligations for International Pacific Salmon Treaty initiatives and provide valuable information such as:

• abundance, distribution and survival
• trends for planning next year’s fishing season
• run timing in salt and freshwater areas

Coded-wire tag information from adipose fin-clipped Coho and Chinook is critically important. It is the only effective tool used for coast wide stock assessment of Coho and Chinook from California to Alaska, even with the advancement of new technology.

Insufficient coded-wire tag recoveries jeopardize Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s ability to assess trends in salmon abundance and survival, since less information results in greater uncertainty. With limited information, the Department may be required to be more precautionary, which may result in reduced future fishing opportunities.

What is a Coded-Wire Tag (CWT)?

A coded-wire tag is a 1mm piece of wire that is laser etched with a unique number. Tags are injected into the nose cartilage of juvenile salmon prior to ocean migration.

Annually, Canada and the United States tag over 50 million juvenile salmon. Fisheries and Oceans Canada applies about 5.5 million tags, using about 5.5 kilometres of wire.

Do All Adipose Fin-Clipped Fish Contain a CWT?

On average, 5 to 10 per cent of B.C. hatchery Chinook and Coho, as well as a small number of wild Coho smolts are tagged.

Mass-marking (removing the adipose fin from all Coho or Chinook) was introduced in 1997 to provide opportunities to catch strong hatchery stocks while conserving natural, unclipped fish through mark-selective, hatchery-only fisheries. In southern British Columbia, hatcheries massmark Coho. In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, both Chinook and Coho are mass-marked.

Because of mass-marking, sport anglers will encounter larger numbers of adipose fin-clipped salmon. To ensure that sufficient coded-wire tags are recovered to support scientific assessments, the Sport Head Recovery Program needs to recover all heads from adipose fin-clipped Coho and Chinook.

What Can You Do?

After keeping an adipose fin-clipped fish, remove the head, attach a completed “head label,” and submit the head with the label to a Salmon Sport Head Recovery Depot. Since the head recovery information is very important, heads should be submitted as soon as possible.

Depots exist at more than 250 locations in British Columbia and are situated at marinas, tackle stores, fishing lodges, and hatcheries. Depot operators provide head labels and store the heads.

To find the depot nearest you, visit our web site www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish, call our toll-free number, or refer to your British Columbia Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Guide or visit our web site www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish.

Be a Winner!

It is just as important to turn in heads from terminal or freshwater sites as it is from marine areas. Even though anglers fishing close to hatcheries can be fairly certain of the origin of their catch, data will not be recorded unless the heads from fin-clipped recoveries are turned in. Without correct data, the health of the stock and the value of the resource to anglers will be underestimated.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Salmon Sport Head Recovery Program Information
1-866-483-9994 (toll free)
www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish