NR-PR-01-054E

May 28, 2001

VANCOUVER - Fisheries and Oceans Canada is releasing two million sockeye fry into the Upper Adams River watershed this spring in a continuing program to rebuild a stock driven to extinction in the early part of the 20^th Century.

Last fall, the Upper Adams River, near Chase, saw a record 70,000 adult sockeye salmon return to its spawning grounds, a stunning recovery for a river that was devoid of salmon from 1913 to 1953. The Upper Adams early summer sockeye run was historically one of the largest in the Fraser River watershed before it was devastated in the early 1900s by the operation of a splash dam at the outlet of Adams Lake.

This spring, Fisheries and Oceans, in partnership with the Adams Lake Band, is releasing two million sockeye fry to continue rebuilding the stock. One million sockeye fry, raised at the Shuswap River Hatchery, have been released into the Upper Adams River. A further one million fry, which were transferred from the hatchery to net pens near the mouth of the Upper Adams River, also have been released.

The Upper Adams is a separate stock from the famed sockeye that spawn in the lower reaches of the Adams River, a run of millions in its dominant years. The sockeye's four-year spawning cycle typically has one peak spawning year, called the dominant run.

The return of sockeye to the Upper Adams will not only provide opportunities to those dependent on the fishery for economic benefit and cultural fulfillment, it will also boost the entire ecosystem by returning nutrients into the watershed and feeding a complex web of life. Everything from micro-organisms, to other fish species to birds of prey, bears and even the trees in the watershed are expected to benefit from the nutrients that the sockeye's life cycle contributes to the ecosystem.

The Department's Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) has been striving to rebuild this stock since 1988, in partnership with local First Nations. These efforts have carried on work involving the transplant of hatchery-reared fry that began in 1949 by the former International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission.

By the 1980s, the spawning numbers, known as escapements, began to improve. In 1992, 2,990 sockeye returned and, in 1996, about 25,000 sockeye returned. The recovery is a result of many decades of varied salmon enhancement activities, as well as management measures that have set harvest rates at levels that allow adult salmon to return to spawning grounds. In the summer of 1997, to help increase both the size and survival of young sockeye salmon rearing in Adams Lake, the Department added nutrients to the lake to stimulate the production of the sockeye's food (plankton). The nutrient program is planned again for the summer of 2001.

The Adams Lake Band, for whom the Upper Adams run has historical importance, works in partnership with the Department on this program, assisting in all field activities. Another key partner is Wolski Environmental Consulting, which operates the Shuswap River Hatchery on contract to the Department. Forest Renewal B.C. has provided funding to the Upper Adams program.

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Please visit our web site at http://www-comm.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

To view a photograph of sockeye being scooped from Shuswap River Hatchery, please click here

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