Fishery Notice

The Fraser River Panel met Wednesday, September 19, to receive an update on the 
migration of the Fraser Sockeye runs to date.	

Gill net test fishery catches in the Fraser River have continued to fluctuate 
for the past two days with Whonnock catches increasing to 222 on September 18, 
while Cottonwood catches remained lower at only 53 on September 18. The Gulf 
Troll test fishery completed the first of 3 days of testing yesterday and 
caught 144 sockeye in Quadrants 3 and 4 compared to 409 during the previous 
week in the same Quadrants. Daily Mission escapement estimates increased 
significantly from 85,500 on September 17 to 142,800 on September 18. The 
estimated total Sockeye escapement past Mission to September 18 is 4,681,100. 
This is comprised of 121,400 Early Stuarts, 1,126,400 Early Summers, 2,079,200 
Summers and 1,354,100 Late run fish. No new stock identification analyses were 
available yesterday. The current estimate for holding Late Run fish is quite 
uncertain at this time and is likely between 0.7 and 2.5 million fish.

During the Panel meeting the run size for Summer Run stocks was reduced from 
the p50 run size of 4.344 million to 4.1 million fish with a 50% Area 20 
migration date of August 10. For Late Run sockeye a provisional run size of 5.0 
million was adopted yesterday with Area 20 timing of August 18 and a predicted 
50% river entry date of September 19, with a resulting reduction in the 
proportional management adjustment to 0.09%. Both the run size and river entry 
date are highly uncertain.  

The eighth spawning ground report was released on September 13.  The Scotch 
Creek counting fence was operational on August 9 with 78,987 sockeye enumerated 
to date. Fish are now past the peak of spawning in Scotch Creek. The Eagle 
River Hydroacoustic site was operational on August 10 with 227,164 fish having 
been estimated to have passed the site to date. Fish are past the peak of 
spawning. The Nadina Spawning Channel operations are now back to normal as the 
fire issues have ended. About 19,800 fish have entered the spawning channel at 
this time.  Fish are vigorous and in good condition. The Stellako River 
hydroacoustic site was operational on August 1 with a total of 178,085 sockeye 
estimated to have passed as of August 28. The majority of these fish would be 
Nadina sockeye at this time. Sockeye have recently been observed in Gates Creek 
with 1,760 counted into the spawning channel to date. Fish are at the peak of 
spawning.

The Chilko River hydroacoustics site was operational on August 3 with a total 
of 508,832 sockeye estimated to date. Fish are in the early stages of spawning. 
In the Quesnel River the hydroacoustics site was operational on August 7 with 
777,475 sockeye estimated to date. Fish are near the peak of spawning. The 
Stellako River hydroacoustics site was operational on August 1 with 111,130 
Stellako sockeye estimated since August 28. 

The hydroacoustics program in the Birkenhead River was operational on August 23 
with 9,176 fish enumerated past the site to date. Fish are reported to be 
vigorous with minimal pre-spawn mortality reported to date. The counting fence 
at Sweltzer Creek was installed on July 31 and 22 Sockeye have been counted 
into Cultus Lake to date. 

Currently, First Nations food, social and ceremonial (FSC) and Economic 
Opportunity Sockeye fisheries are nearing completion in Marine areas and the 
lower Fraser River while FSC and commercial demonstration fisheries in the 
interior are ongoing.  First Nation fishers are requested to check for the 
opening times and any restrictions in their local area. 

Retention of sockeye in marine recreational fisheries began on August 1 and 
remains open while the in-river fishery in the lower Fraser River is currently 
closed to retention of sockeye. The marine recreational fishery will remain 
open to sockeye retention until further notice but may be closed with 48 hours 
notice in the coming two weeks.

There was no increase to the available ITQ for either Areas B or H based on 
yesterday's information.  Please refer to fisheries notices for the individual 
fisheries for further details. 

The next Panel meeting will be on Friday, September 21 at 11am.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Regional Salmon Team - DFO Pacific
DFO.PacificSalmonRMT-EGRSaumonduPacifique.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Fisheries & Oceans Operations Center - FN1024
Sent September 20, 2018 at 0723

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