ALVIN, B.C.— Firstly, as an ardent angler of the upper Pitt River for 45-years, a former commercial halibut, shrimp, and salmon fisherman, professionally licensed freshwater angling guide, former director of the Save Our Fish Foundation (SOFF) and a founding member of the Pitt River & Area Watershed Network (PRAWN), I would like it to be known that I personally own a 600 HP jet boat (and a gas-guzzling pickup truck to pull it) and don’t hold anything against anyone who owns one of these boats … as long as it is used in a “respectable” manner.
The name of the game for many British Columbians is to live life to the fullest, have fun, and above all else, thoroughly enjoy the great outdoors that this beautiful province has been blessed with. Far be it from me to try telling anybody where or when they should or shouldn’t pilot or drive their jet boat. Why I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone what particular river that person should pilot their boat on anymore than I would tell a person not to drive up and down the street our family lives on. However, on the other side of coin, add excessive speed, a thoughtless jackass driver and all the neighborhood kids playing on the street into this picture and it’s a totally different story.
Surprisingly, a considerable portion of today’s anglers and/or boaters in British Columbia don’t seem to realize that some species of young salmon and trout remain in the rivers of their birth for quite some time. In other words, lying just out of sight below the surface on any given salmon-bearing stream or river, there are potentially hundreds of thousands young salmon and certain species of trout living for extended periods of time before making their way to the Pacific Ocean.
The fact remains that potentially a very large number of these young salmon and trout fry and parr, suspended just under the surface in shallow water, would almost surely be sucked into and killed by impellers in a boat’s jet drive water pump, coupled to powerful engines delivering about 1400-1800 pounds of thrust while pumping 3000 to 4000 gallons of water every minute at a pressure of 60 to 180 pounds per square inch. Young fish, salmon or trout eggs in various stages of life, and their vitally important food source of aquatic insects and chironomids, may also succumb to shock and concussion caused by the extreme crushing force of water exiting jet drives, or from the shear displacement of the boat’s hull in confined quarters of a shallow river. It would seem that to suggest otherwise would be wishful thinking, ignorance of the facts, or an obvious case of blatant stupidity on the part of the boat operator.
The following information on Pacific salmonids found in the upper Pitt River and its tributaries comes courtesy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada:
Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) school at the mouths of rivers and move up when fall rains increase river flow. Generally a coho will not travel more than 150 miles up river from the sea or lake. Spawning takes place anywhere between October and January. After the female prepares the redd she will lay 2100-2789 eggs guarding them until she dies a few days later. The fry emerge from early March to late July and although some will migrate almost immediately, most remain at least one year in fresh water lakes or streams.
Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) migrate as much as 600-1200 miles upriver between July and November. The female digs the redd by lying on her side and thrashing the tail up and down forming a small hole where she lays her 4242-13 619 eggs. She dies within a few days to 2 weeks. This species utilizes about 260 streams in British Columbia, fewer than do other species. Unlike most other species of Pacific Salmon, Chinook young remain in freshwater for varying lengths of time after hatching. Some remain in freshwater for a few months to a year. In northern areas most spend at least one year in fresh water. The young in fresh water feed on terrestrial insects, Crustacea and adults, mites, spiders and aphids. Young chinook in fresh water are preyed on by rainbow and cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden, coho salmon smolts, squawfish, sculpins, kingfisher and other diving birds.
Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) returning to spawn migrate to the rivers anywhere from July (in northern British Columbia) to early January (in southern B.C.) They rarely penetrate a river more than 100 miles and often spawn in tidal areas showing a lesser ability to surmount obstacles than other species. An average female will lay 2400- 3100 eggs before dying a few days later. Hatching usually occurs from late December to late February. They remain in the gravel until late April to early May when they migrate to the sea. Food intake includes diatoms, dipterous insects, fish larvae, fish and squid.
Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) females sockeye lays 2,000 - 5,000 eggs in a shallow redd. Fertilized by a single male, her eggs mature in the pebbley gravel, hatching in two months as yolk-heavy alevins. Alevins emerge from the river bed and migrate to lakes in early spring. Here they reside in fresh water for the longest duration of all the salmonids - for one to two years, and in rare strains, for as long as three years - before migrating to the ocean.
Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) females lay 1200 - 1900 eggs - the fewest number of any species. As with other salmonids, eggs reside within a relatively thick (.45 millimeter), structurally complex membrane. Millions of sperm dash frantically for the only opening in the egg, the micropyle, which closes immediately upon fertilization. In three to five minutes, unsuccessful sperm swell with water and explode.
Pink salmon spend their entire lives at sea, a characteristic shared only with chum. After emerging from the gravel bed, pink migrate immediately to the ocean, migrating north along the coast of British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle at a rate of 3 - 16 miles per day.
Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) just like salmon, the steelhead female digs a nest (redd) with her tail and the male fertilizes her eggs at the same instant she lays them. Temperature is the key factor which determines when the eggs hatch and when the yoke-bellied alevin break free to grow between the gravel. Once the young steelhead complete using their yoke food reserves they squirm up through the gravel and become free swimming fry. The life expectancy can be as low as 3-4 years but generally the steelhead lives 6-8 years. They first feed on plankton then insects and as they grow older, crustaceans and other fish. They live in their home stream for two, three, or even four years before they enter the smolt stage and migrate downstream to the ocean. Prior to reaching the ocean they 'silver-up' adapting to the osmotic change that will occur when their body moves from a fresh water environment to a salt water medium. Rainbow Trout prefer food items that are just becoming available during the season. Trout feeding throughout May, for example, will have already gorged themselves on Chironomid hatches.
Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki) adult anadromous forms return to freshwater spawning streams in late autumn and early winter but spawning takes place there in February to May. In both forms of cutthroat trout spawning takes place in small, gravelly streams where the male courts the female by nudging and quivering. The female prepares the redd where she lays 1100-1700 eggs. Hatching occurs 6-7 weeks later. Cutthroat remain near shore, favouring brackish or estuarine waters. They usually remain in estuaries of rivers from which they entered the sea. Young cutthroat remain in fresh water for periods of from one to as much as five years.
Dolly Varden & Bull Trout (Salvelinus malma) the Dolly Varden is a fall spawner. The female digs the redd and is attended by 4-5 males. Generally this species lives 10-12 years. The bull trout is known as the most serious predator on young salmon and a bounty was long paid on them in Alaska.
Another important factor to consider is the impact of sedimentation and siltation on salmonids caused by jet boats traveling in shallow reaches - in places like the upper Pitt River. While this serious problem is not readily seen by the people traveling upriver in the boats themselves, it is clearly visible to anyone who happens to be downstream along the banks. After any number of jet boats have traveled upriver through shallower sections of the river, the effects are dramatic and immediate, as water becomes completely clouded by silt.
Years of road building and logging have caused major sedimentation problems in the upper Pitt River and its tributaries, as it has on many coastal rivers. Jet boats frequently traveling through shallow water on the upper Pitt River continually stir sediment deposits on the bottom substrate. Eventually, when sediment-laden water is stilled, that sediment settles to the bottom of the stream, river, lake, or estuary. When sediments settle out, they may cover or destroy important habitat such as salmon and trout spawning beds. It can bury and smother bottom-dwelling insects and reduce the survival rate of fish eggs. Sediment still suspended in water increases infection and disease among fish by irritating their gills.
All of this can add up to devastating impacts upon a river’s salmon, steelhead and trout.
It may be of great interest at this time to note an on-going study located in the Southeast corner of Barkley Sound, on the West coast of Vancouver Island, where the Carnation Creek Experimental Watershed Project was started in 1970. (The small watershed has also been known for thousands of years by Huu-ay-aht First Nation peoples as C*ac^aasyas.)
Preliminary results of the Carnation Creek project indicate we may be seriously underestimating the effects that siltation and sedimentation play in the role of determining healthy, sustainable salmon stocks in B.C. The study has found that fine silt fills in the spaces between gravel in spawning beds, making it difficult for eggs to hatch and young fish to survive by mainly sight-feeding on very small chironomids and tiny aquatic insects. A report on the project notes that some internal organs of fish subjected to heavy sedimentation on Carnation Creek did not fully develop due to a lack of a readily available food source of chironomids and small aquatic insects that could not be seen by their prey.
Once these same fish made their way to the Pacific Ocean and were forced to compete with healthy wild salmon stocks for scarce food sources due to ocean warming trends or a natural weather phenomenon such as El Nino, the fully developed and healthy salmon always seemed to beat the underdeveloped ones to food. Mother Nature seemed to play out her role once again, showing biologists that under certain ocean conditions, only the strong salmon would survive to return to their natal streams.
Like it or not, the current trend seems to be shifting to privatization and a user-pay scenario in British Columbia’s sport fisheries. Government has stated in no uncertain terms that sport fishery funding will be cut, some or most hatcheries will close, and community-based river stewardship groups may have to raise all their own funds in the future.
With the vast majority of our wild Pacific salmon stocks well below historic levels and some now teetering precariously on the brink of extinction, each and every British Columbian would be wise do everything in their power to ensure healthy, sustainable salmon runs for future generations of British Columbians to marvel over and enjoy. As responsible stewards of our rivers and the magnificent salmon and trout that call them home, it is up to each one of us to “respect the resource” and to leave a lasting legacy our children can be proud of.
Sadly, I have heard it said time and again by concerned anglers and former commercial fishermen that British Columbia’s sports-fishermen have sentenced our rivers and fish to a death by a thousand cuts. On the other hand, the same saying holds true for both federal and provincial government bodies responsible for the well-being of our rapidly vanishing fish stocks and their all-important habitat.
The jet boat traffic on the upper Pitt makes it clear that there is a growing body of so-called sport anglers who have a total disregard for the regulations, the resource, and fellow fishermen. The sport fishery today does appear to be taking up right where the commercial fishery left off in terms of destruction of an irreplaceable natural resource.
In closing, I would like to remind all British Columbians of the words of Robert G. Thibault, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada:
It is an offense under the Fisheries Act to destroy fish by means other than fishing, or to cause harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat, unless authorized by the Minister or under regulations made by the Governor in Council under the Fisheries Act. In view of this, Pacific Region staff are investigating the extent of impacts caused by jet boats on the Pitt River. Preliminary information indicates that impacts on fish vary with the boating practices of individual boaters. With that in mind, staff will be finding opportunities to educate people using the Pitt River on boating practices that are respectful of fish and fish habitat.
END NOTE:
Ken Kristian is a former guide and a current jet boat owner who feels jet boat traffic must be limited on small rivers, in order to protect salmon eggs, fry and the insects they feed on. You won’t see him blowing by you on the Upper Pitt, a river he likes to fish....by walking.
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