Selective Fish Harvesting

Introduction and Background

The Selective Fisheries Program of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada funded the 1999 selective fish harvest project managed by the Kitselas Band Council.

The project was to place and operate a fishwheel and small fishtrap in the vicinity of Kitselas Canyon on the mainstem Skeena River near Terrace, BC. The band has been experimenting with selective harvest devices for the past couple of years. The fisheries program operated by the bands fisheries program will attempt to modify the fishwheel and trap to changing water levels. These devices will provide a selective method to harvest food, social and ceremonial (Sec. 35.1) for band membership and allow the live release of non-target species such as upper Skeena Coho. A short-term survivability study and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sampling of Coho salmon and Sockeye salmon was also incorporated into the project.

The Skeena River is the second highest salmon producing system in British Columbia. DFO will agree that mixed stocks of the Skeena River system pose a tremendous challenge to fisheries management. The pursuit of the valuable sockeye salmon has threatened the survival of the Upper Skeena Coho stocks and possibly the Skeena River Steelhead. It has become vital that harvest methods be developed that reduce the by-catch problems in the Skeena River. Live capture allows the harvest of target species such as sockeye while allowing non-target species, such as the threatened upper Skeena Coho Salmon, to continue their spawning migration. Live capture of fish can allow the harvest of surplus stocks without over harvesting non-target species. The quality of the harvested salmon is first class since the flesh of the fish is not damaged from netting and the fish can be kept alive up until it is sent to the processors. As part of the aboriginal fishery strategy (AFS), the Kitselas Band started experimenting with fishwheels on the Skeena River in 1993 to capture salmon for both the food fishery and commercial purposes. The Kitselas Fishwheels have progressed from all wooden structures to all aluminum structures that were designed and built in 1999. See Photos 1 to 4 in Appendix E - Project Photos.

Live capture of salmon and other species of fish can also allow the harvest of surplus, or undersized males, without over harvest of the egg bearing females, in this case Jack Sockeye. The quality of the harvested salmon is first class since the flesh of the fish is not damaged from netting and the fish can be kept alive for tagging and other scientific purposes i.e. DNA sampling that may be required by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The use of selective harvesting methods such as floating fishtraps and fishwheels allows for fishing during times when traditional net fishing would be closed.

The development of the fishwheels and most recently (1999) the fishtrap has created training and employment opportunities for members of the Kitselas communities.

The fundamentals of fishwheel design are relatively simple. A set of baskets (for Kitselas - 3 scoops) is attached on an axle suspended between two pontoons. The force of the rive current on the immersed basket causes rotation of the wheel. Migrating salmon travelling upstream to their spawning grounds get inadvertently caught in the rotating baskets. As the wheel rotates, the trapped salmon are scooped out of the river by the rotating baskets. As the rotating basket nears the vertical position, the salmon tumble down the basket on to a slider, which directs the falling fish into a live pen. The live pen attached to the outside portion of the pontoons allows water to flow through the live box, delivering oxygen to the trapped fish. Fish are then removed by hand from the live boxes using dipnets equipped with knotless mesh.

Although fishwheels have all but disappeared from the west coast of North America, they were once used extensively on the Columbia River during the 1870’s and were used up until the mid 1930’s. the large fishwheels used at the time (some measured over 30 metres in diameter and could harvest as high as 35 tonnes of salmon per day) threatened the livelihood of those involved in traditional net fisheries, and in 1934, the net fisheries successfully lobbied to have them banned from operating on the river. Fishwheels are still used today for commercial harvest of Chinook, chum and Coho salmon in the Yukon Territory and Alaska.