Ingenika Watershed Arctic Grayling monitoring 2020–2021
This project will continue work from 2018 and 2019 performing Arctic Grayling snorkelling surveys in the Ingenika River. This work supports a proposed framework of long-term population monitoring in three rivers (Ingenika, Finlay, and Mesilinka) within the Tsay Keh Dene traditional territory. Snorkelling surveys provide key information indicating abundance, trend, critical habitats, potential threats, and limiting factors for Arctic Grayling. The population is of importance within FWCP’s Arctic Grayling Monitoring Framework because of: 1) high cultural importance to the Tsay Key Dene people; 2) high feasibility of the methodology, due to exceptional water clarity; and 3) the population is one of concern, due to isolation from the Finlay Arctic Grayling population and small population size.
Update: Snorkeling for Arctic grayling in the Ingenika River Watershed
This is the third consecutive year of conducting Arctic grayling snorkel surveys in the Ingenika River Watershed. The FWCP’s Peace Region is the southernmost range for this species of concern. Get a glimpse of this important work in the traditional territory of the Tsay Keh Dene with a short video by Chu Cho Environmental about this FWCP-funded project.
Final report: executive summary
The Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is an especially coveted and sought-after sustenance species for the Tsay Keh Dene Nation. Since flooding, Arctic Grayling appear to have disappeared from many of the direct tributaries to Williston Reservoir. Self-sustaining populations are known only from the larger Parsnip, Nation, Omineca, Mesilinka, Finlay, and Ingenika watersheds. The Ingenika River watershed is of critical interest to the nearby community of Tsay Keh Dene. In this report, we present results of a snorkelling survey study designed to monitor Arctic Grayling population status and the distribution of critical summer rearing habitat along the Ingenika River mainstem.
Click the provincial database link below to read the full final report for this project.