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Early Stuart Sockeye Run Alarmingly Low

By 250 News

The Pacific Salmon Commission continues to express concerns over the number of Early Stuart Sockeye salmon returning to the spawning beds this year. 

Earlier the Commission had estimated 258,000 early Stuart sockeye.  That has now been revised to 100,000 fish and the Commission is saying that it will not exceed that total. 

As of July 7th, only 12,000 fish had been counted heading to the spawning grounds located on the Stuart River.  That number is but a fraction of the former returns.  In the past, up to 2 million sockeye had made the trek and the value of that fishery had been pegged at 25 million dollars. 

The season remains closed in an effort to try and save what has been described by many biologists as the final legs of the early Stuart sockeye run.

The fish that have been returning also face further problems in that the average weight of the fish this year, is 2.2 kg’s.  That is much lower than the normal average of 2.6 kg’s.  The extra weight is body fat that enables the fish to make the long journey to the spawning grounds.  There are fears that if a warm spell hits the rivers, many of the remaining fish may not be able to make it to those spawning beds. 

The Early Stuart sockeye have been the prized sockeye salmon in BC for years because of the fact they migrate early and for the fat content of the fish.
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