F24 Annual Fish Passage for Alouette River Watershed
Our Coastal Region board has made a 10-year commitment to support fish passage feasibility plans for the Alouette River and based on the Fish Passage Decision Framework.
Update: Best Alouette River sockeye return in 17 years
Thirty-one adult sockeye returned to the Alouette River Watershed to spawn in 2023, making this the highest run since monitoring started 17 years ago.
The adults measured an average of 55.75 centimetres at fork length. DNA results confirm that more than half of the returning adults were released as fry from Alouette Lake Reservoir.
Of the 31 fish that returned to spawn, 24 were trapped and released into Alouette Lake Reservoir to spawn. The remaining adults did not survive.
Executive Summary
In order to assess the feasibility of anadromous Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) re-introduction into the Alouette Reservoir, studies are being conducted to determine the return success of O.nerka adults to the ALLCO fish fence. 2023 was the seventeenth year of monitoring Alouette adult Sockeye salmon at the fence.
Through BC Hydro’s Alouette Project Water Use Plan (2009), a spring surface release from the Alouette Dam allowed for Sockeye smolts to migrate to the ocean. The first surface releases occurred in 2005 and in 2007 the first adult Sockeye returned to the Alouette Watershed. The 2023 Alouette Sockeye salmon run saw thirty-one (31) adults return between July 19 and October 19 to the ALLCO fish fence. Fork length measurements were taken of all Sockeye salmon. The measurements indicated an average fork length of 55.75 centimetres.
The genetic analysis identified eighteen (18) of thirty (30) sampled adults originated from Alouette stock. The other twelve (12) sampled adults were unable to be identified. Between the smolt outmigration years of 2005-2018, the smolt to adult (return to the hatchery fish fence) survival of the Alouette Sockeye has ranged from a low of 0.03% in the 2011 smolt year to a high of 1.43% in the 2008 smolt year. (Bocking and Mathews, 2023 unpublished data).
Since 2007, up to and including the 2023 season, 489 adult Sockeye salmon have returned to the ALLCO fish fence, 415 of those have been successfully released into the Alouette Reservoir.
This project aligns with Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program’s Alouette River Watershed Action Plan. (2020). The priority which is addressed are:
• Sub-objective 1 – ALU.RLR.SB.18.01 Conduct technical feasibility assessment, monitoring and/or species-based actions associated with Sockeye Salmon passage at Alouette Dam to support reintroduction to the Alouette system. Work must build upon the Alouette River Sockeye Re-Introduction Synthesis (13.ALU.02) and the Alouette Watershed Sockeye-fish passage Feasibility (COA-F18-F-2385). Proponents looking for an FWCP grant to evaluate opportunities to restore fish production above BC Hydro facilities that previously blocked fish passage are required to work through the Fish Passage Decision Framework (http://fwcp.ca/fish-passage-decisionframework/).
Click the provincial database link below to read the full final report for this project.