This year's disappointing chum salmon returns to the Squamish River system are cause for concern, but not panic, local fisheries experts said this week.
The low returns -one official with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) estimated that the final numbers would come in at about nine per cent of average - could mean that next month's 25th Brackendale bald eagle count will yield lower-than-average numbers.
Rob Bell-Irving, DFO community advisor for the Sea to Sky Corridor, on Tuesday (Nov. 30) said that because chum salmon are one of the key feeder species for wildlife such as eagles and bears as well as the region's forests, the low number of returning chum will definitely put a strain on the overall ecosystem.
"Other species are looking up - coho, sockeye, fall Chinook and pinks have been sensational for the last three cycles," Bell-Irving said. "So it's the chums that were kind of the odd fish out this year. That's going to be very hard on the bears and very, very hard on the eagles.
"What people need to realize about Squamish is that we have one of the latest coho returns anywhere - they return in December and even January and even February. So the eagles right now really need to feed on the chums" that are present despite the low returns, he said.
Bell-Irving and Caroline Melville, a fisheries consultant who has been conducting fisheries surveys on the Cheakamus and Squamish systems for B.C. Hydro and other clients for the past few years, said this year's low chum numbers weren't completely unexpected. Most chum salmon have a four-year life cycle and in 2006 numbers were also low, they said.
Melville, who has been working exclusively on the Cheakamus River system for the past four years, said the data isn't all gloom and doom.
"It's not super bright, but there's more fish there than at other locations, just because the Cheakamus tends to be a pretty strong river overall. Our counts are running about a third of what they were last year," she said.
Coming into the fall chum season, Bell-Irving said fisheries experts hoped that numbers would be a bit higher than they've been, based on the fact that 2009 numbers were better than expected.
"A couple of the years that were even worse were in the 1980s and in a very strong El Niño year. And last year was a strong El Niño year," he said. Historically, stronger-than-expected years often follow on one another for a variety of reasons that aren't all that well understood.
"After last year we hoped this year might be a bit better for chum, but it hasn't turned out that way."
Thor Froslev, the Brackendale Art Gallery co-owner who leads the annual eagle count that will take place on Jan. 2, 2011, said his theory is that the chum are being negatively affected by sea lice from fish farms along the central and southern B.C. coast.
"The chum is really taking a licking from the sea lice. One or two of them can kill a young chum," Froslev said, adding that he expects this year's eagle count to be somewhere close to the relatively low numbers of the previous four years - around 1,000. Last year's total was 969.
For more on this story, please see this week's edition of The Chief.
