The First Nations Atlantic Salmon Watch program (FNASWP), a sub-program of the ASWP, was initiated in 2001 with funding provided the BC Provincial Government’s Interim Measures Fund. The fund, which specifically aids First Nations, provided resources to train and deploy First Nations surveyors throughout coastal BC to look for Atlantic salmon. The program was operated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries with consultation from the BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Malaspina University College, North Island College and the BC Salmon Farmers Association. The program consisted of two phases, a training phase and a deployment phase.

During July 2001, fifty members of coastal First Nations were trained in four sessions held in Tofino, Port Hardy, Campbell River and Prince Rupert. The training included courses in first aid, SwiftWater safety, fish identification and a specially developed course in stream survey techniques. The preferred survey techniques for Atlantic salmon is snorkel surveys. Snorkel surveys consists of teams of two or more, swimming downstream in rivers, identifying and counting the fish that they observe. Snorkel surveys are a very accurate and cost-effective survey technique that does not impact on native salmonids or the environment.

One hundred and seventeen surveys were carried out from September through to December 2001. The surveys were conducted on fifty-five different river systems, covering over 280 kilometers. This program marked the most extensive effort to date to enumerate Atlantic salmon in BC. Over 389,000 salmonids were counted during the surveys, only two of which were Atlantic salmon. The two counts of Atlantic salmon are included in the ASWP summary data.

The map below shows the locations of the survey rivers. The rivers in red are those in which Atlantic salmon were counted.

The following three data tables give the counts per survey of all the salmonids.