Big Bar landslide response information bulletin
October 24 2022
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- Salmon passage conditions at Big Bar are encouraging
- Current images of work being done at the landslide site
Salmon passage conditions at Big Bar are encouraging
After a busy summer season, the field portions of the Big Bar biological operations have now concluded. Trap and transport operations were fully demobilized in August due to favorable passage conditions, while conservation enhancement and monitoring programs continued into the fall. Based on the most recent migration data, passage conditions at Big Bar are encouraging and better than expected.
Enhancement summary
A total of 10 Chinook stocks and 4 sockeye stocks were the focus of the summer field programs. Approximately 400,000 Chinook eggs and 618,500 sockeye eggs were successfully collected, meeting the targets for the year. The incubation and enumeration of eggs for both species is progressing at multiple hatchery facilities. In addition, planning efforts for smolt releases for the remaining 2021 brood stock have begun. The goal is to release these fish in spring 2023 together with the 2022 brood collection fry.
On September 28, the remaining release of 2021 Early Stuart sockeye parr (a stage between fry and smolt) took place. Together with both the Takla and Nak’azdli Nations, the enhancement team released approximately 180,000 sockeye into Takla Lake while a smaller number was released into Stuart Lake at Fort St. James. This final release, combined with the fry releases in spring 2022, will support the rebuilding of the highly impacted 2020 Early Stuart sockeye spawning population.
Preliminary monitoring results
Based on preliminary results it appears that the Big Bar landslide site did not delay salmon passage this year. An early estimate of 2.9 million salmon passed the slide site in 2022 with a total of 1,407 radio tags (287 Chinook, 93 Coho, and 1,027 Sockeye) applied to salmon at sites near Matsqui, Lillooet and downstream of Big Bar. The monitoring team will continue to collect data from the radio telemetry and hydro acoustic sonar equipment until the end of the month. After the data is analyzed, the team will provide a detailed summary of the passage conditions for the stocks that move through the Big Bar canyon. This information will be reviewed by Compass Resource Management and will be critical for the structured decision making (SDM) process moving forward.Current images of work being done at the landslide site
Additional images of the work underway as part of our response efforts can be seen on the Government of BC’s Flickr channel.
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