The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) is celebrating the highest recorded sockeye salmon return in the modern era after two decades of work led by First Nations to restore fish migration routes and spawning habitat.
An estimated 670,000 sockeye have entered the Columbia River system this summer on a nearly-1,000-kilometre upstream journey toward spawning grounds in creeks and rivers, according to fish biologists with the ONA.
More than 80 per cent of those fish are destined for Canadian waters near Osoyoos, B.C., in the south Okanagan, said Richard Bussanich, the organization’s head fish biologist.
“This is a great story,” Bussanich said. “We’ve got more fish than spawning habitat coming back.”
Initial projections for the annual sockeye return were less than 200,000, but Bussanich said climate and weather conditions this year, combined with the success of spawning bed restoration and fish hatchery programs led by First Nations, have resulted in the abundant return of salmon to the region
A small Indigenous fishery in the Okanagan is wrapping up for the season after a record return of sockeye salmon. Restoration work over the past two decades has restored fish migration routes to the region.
“Every once in a while you might witness something right. It’s just humbling and it’s overwhelming at times,” he said.
The record salmon return means the ONA’s economic fishery and community harvest program is thriving this year.
Through the month of August, a crew on the fishery’s 12-metre purse seine boat netted an estimated 10,000 sockeye from Osoyoos Lake to be distributed among the ONA’s seven Syilx communities, with another 40,000 salmon for the commercial fishery.
It’s tough work under the hot, Okanagan sun, but gratifying for fishermen like Oly Clarke.
“It feels awesome helping community members get their fish. Watching [the salmon] go to the market, come back to be canned, candied and all that good stuff,” said Clarke, who has been part of the ONA fishery for the past decade.
