Language selection

Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada

Search

Babine River counting fence

The Babine River salmon counting fence is located one kilometre downstream of Nilkitkwa Lake, 360 km from the commercial fishing boundary at the mouth of the Skeena River. The counting fence was established in 1946 and is used to provide an accurate escapement count of sockeye and other species of salmon entering Babine Lake, where up to 90% of the Skeena River sockeye are produced in any given year.

The counting fence is normally installed in early July depending on water levels in the Babine River. Installing the fence entails positioning 66, 4 by 7-foot aluminium panels in their respective places along the 330-foot frame that spans the entire width of the Babine River. Seven holding traps, approximately 6 feet wide by 8.5 feet long are spaced across the river on the upstream side of the frame. After all the panels are in place, each of the seven traps is made operational by positioning sliding doors and counting chutes.

All species of salmonids are present in the Babine River with sockeye being the most numerous. Large numbers of pink salmon are also present and spawn directly above the counting fence. When post spawning mortalities occur, the fence soon becomes littered with their carcasses, which are subsequently pitched over the fence. The fence is opened to allow fish through from 0600h to 2200h daily and counting between these times is performed in a series of two hour shifts by two, three, and sometimes, depending on the strength of that day’s run, four persons. At the end of the salmon migration, the aluminium panels are removed and the camp is closed down.

Sampling

Every day of the migration 25 sockeye are randomly removed from the traps for the purpose of sampling. The procedure consists of sampling for sex, nose fork and hypural lengths and general age, size and sex make-up of that year’s migration, therefore enabling potential egg deposition to be estimated. Chinook salmon are sampled after spawning as they are removed from the fence during that day’s deadpitch. All chinook, with the scarce exception of those that are badly decomposed are sampled for scales, sex, nose fork and hypural lengths, origin (hatchery or wild stock by adipose fin) and in the case of females, egg retention. Pink salmon are sampled for sex and nose fork length. As is the case with chinook, pink salmon are easily recovered from the fence during that day’s deadpitch and it is at this time that the 100 daily samples are obtained. An effort is made to stop and sample each coho with a missing adipose fin for scales, length and sex.

Babine River fence counts

Count archives

Date Large sockeye Jack sockeye Pink Coho Large chinook Jack chinook Steelhead
22/07/15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/16 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/17 8 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/18 10 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/19 10 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/20 18 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/21 25 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/22 45 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/23 47 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/24 51 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/25 212 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/26 843 0 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/27 5,397 34 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/28 4,229 33 0 0 0 0 0
22/07/29 28,914 94 0 0 2 0 0
22/07/30 78,670 413 0 0 1 0 0
22/07/31 95,995 1,194 0 0 6 0 0
22/08/01 114,013 1,628 0 0 8 0 0
22/08/02 89,313 1,567 0 0 4 3 0
22/08/03 55,807 1,447 0 0 1 17 0
22/08/04 51,890 1,757 1 0 5 2 0
22/08/05 70,075 2,467 2 0 0 2 0
22/08/06 68,883 2,388 27 0 4 6 0
22/08/07 59,944 2,222 54 0 12 2 0
22/08/08 46,621 2,131 60 0 4 1 0
22/08/09 63,259 2,791 293 0 35 8 0
22/08/10 64,587 2,551 67 0 34 9 0
22/08/11 73,637 3,106 274 0 45 36 0
22/08/12 83,099 3,205 579 0 35 12 0
22/08/13 74,332 3,208 1239 0 52 3 0
22/08/14 92,534 3,978 1997 1 60 1 1
22/08/15 92,188 3,618 3,425 7 52 21 0
22/08/16 97,518 3,071 2129 7 130 20 0
22/08/17 90,296 2,982 1,582 16 68 17 0
22/08/18 91,030 2,846 2,316 13 70 21 0
22/08/19 72,106 3,282 3,065 28 60 19 1
22/08/20 73,676 3,638 3,960 22 32 28 4
22/08/21 72,023 2,047 2,906 17 52 33 0
22/08/22 89,879 3,266 3,427 19 24 20 0
22/08/23 90,753 2,615 2,668 5 54 12 0
22/08/24 74,255 2,715 2,309 11 15 2 0
22/08/25 85,663 2,893 1,791 45 70 13 0
22/08/26 81,328 2,767 2,189 84 184 55 4
22/08/27 52,265 2,206 2,480 294 138 35 3
22/08/28 58,945 2,049 1,886 451 139 58 4
22/08/29 61,029 2,459 1,092 986 78 39 5
22/08/30 47,793 1,912 1,456 1,375 64 31 4
22/08/31 36,809 925 886 907 63 10 3
22/09/01 28,299 651 433 422 5 5 1
22/09/02 21,940 550 467 516 38 13 2
22/09/03 19,848 637 376 318 34 9 0
22/09/04 19,708 852 298 372 36 6 0
22/09/05 37,864 1,070 771 797 52 4 0
22/09/06 31,544 773 635 820 45 2 4
22/09/07 20,702 795 544 481 13 1 4
22/09/08 16,310 473 329 531 22 1 0
22/09/09 15,630 367 346 292 11 1 1
22/09/10 16,448 384 366 524 42 3 0
22/09/11 12,570 402 369 385 21 0 0
22/09/12 12,105 348 352 867 45 0 8
22/09/13 10,400 325 249 899 41 0 3
22/09/14 10,642 332 271 793 52 0 2
22/09/15 7,945 290 170 961 29 0 4
22/09/16 7,467 300 154 785 54 2 6
22/09/17 6,134 270 123 628 90 1 18
22/09/18 6,635 278 88 861 157 6 11
22/09/19 6,004 334 97 651 75 0 9
22/09/20 4,777 222 107 721 261 0 1
22/09/21 4,554 167 84 452 166 4 0
22/09/22 3,637 181 34 570 124 10 2
22/09/23 2,859 128 12 416 89 10 2
22/09/24 2,617 128 44 564 97 0 1
22/09/25 2,171 115 25 473 69 0 0
22/09/26 1,713 114 13 514 59 5 0
22/09/27 1,449 124 10 641 56 4 2
22/09/28 1,058 85 15 515 32 7 0
22/09/29 1,047 82 1 329 11 3 0
22/09/30 861 35 0 238 9 0 1
22/10/01 739 38 29 232 20 1 2
22/10/02 352 19 14 146 7 0 0
22/10/03 220 18 4 97 1 0 0
22/10/04 202 14 2 111 4 0 0
22/10/05 167 12 8 61 2 0 0
22/10/06 39 3 13 5 0 0 1
22/10/07 45 4 2 23 0 0 0
Total 2,826,728 92,425 51,015 22,299 3,470 634 114
Date modified: