Salmon swimming for Fort Simpson
Salmon run larger, earlier than usual; ENR taking samples for research
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 25, 2016
DEH CHO
Three weeks early and in triple the usual numbers, chum salmon are quickly making their way up the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson.
This chum salmon was caught in the Liard River in 2015. - photo courtesy of Jim Deneron
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One grad student, Karen Dunmall, has been tracking the progress of the salmon so far this year. By Aug. 10, salmon had been caught in Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson, and one week later salmon had also been caught in Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Deline.
Dunmall, a PhD student from the University of Manitoba, has spent the last five years in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to measure salmon numbers along the coast and down the Mackenzie River. She has also been gathering samples for research.
She said she expects salmon to hit Fort Simpson within the next two weeks.
"To be honest, they're surprising me all over the map this year," Dunmall said.
"They were harvested in Deline . and when I was in Norman Wells, we checked the net and there were seven in it."
Deline is particularly surprising, she said, due to the fact salmon have to enter the Bear River and make a turn to get to Great Bear Lake.
"It's early and it's also off the beaten track," she said.
"They're rarely harvested in Great Bear Lake."
Although Dunmall tracks five different kinds of salmon on the coast, the two she sees in highest numbers are pink and chum. The latter is the one that will be coming past Fort Simpson, since pink don't swim so far up river, she said.
Aside from tracking numbers, Dunmall's project also involves collecting voluntary samples. To that end, Fisheries and Oceans Canada partnered with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to collect salmon and hand out gift card rewards to those who bring them in. Whole salmon are worth $50, while a head or tail are worth $25.
"That's a way to figure out where salmon were being caught, how many, how that changed year-to-year and also the different kinds of salmon that were showing up in people's nets," she said.
Dunmall also uses the samples for DNA analysis, which she then matches to salmon DNA from around the Pacific Rim, to determine where the salmon originate from.
So far this year, she has collected more than 70 samples - more than twice what has been handed in over the past few years.
As for the Deh Cho, Dunmall said she is especially interested in salmon that show up in the Liard River.
"The Liard is interesting because it's one of the places where salmon are suspected to spawn successfully," she said.
"In order to test that using DNA, I actually need the salmon from the Liard. Then I can use their DNA to try to figure out if there's a spawning population in that river and where it would be."
As it stands, she doesn't have enough samples yet from the Liard River to answer that question. But the possibility of a spawning population is feasible, she said.
"One of the theories is that when the glaciers receded, the Liard was connected to the Yukon River, way back when," she said.
"When they receded, there was a connection."
A perfect storm of circumstances could be leading to a surge in salmon running this year, she said. That includes earlier break-up, warmer temperatures and the fact it's been five years since the last large chum run.
"In 2011, there were a lot of chum. That was the first year I was on the project and it was surprising for everybody," she said, adding she used the scales of the chum to figure out how old they were.
"A lot of the ones that year were five-year-old fish. It's five years later, so that could contribute to having more chum in the river."
Pinks on the coast, on the other hand, have a swell in population every two years for similar reasons.
As for the early start to the season, Dunmall said that was helped along by warming waters.
"Salmon follow temperature lines in the ocean. They're just looking for the food and right temperatures of water to swim in," she said.
"As break-up is happening earlier and earlier, springs are warmer and that line that salmon are following for temperature is further and further north."
Gift cards are available at local ENR offices for anyone willing to hand in a frozen sample.
