Kootenay Lake Kokanee Recovery: Success and adventure in challenging conditions

By Ben Meunier, Fisheries Biologist

Kokanee are an iconic fish species in Kootenay Lake.

Historically very abundant, this population of land-locked salmon collapsed in 2013 as a result of human impacts to the lake’s ecosystem combined with natural causes.

While numbers of spawning Kokanee observed in streams at the North end of the lake regularly exceeded 1 million fish prior to the collapse, numbers have remained below 100,000 for the past 7 years.

The Ktunaxa Nation Council is currently leading Kokanee recovery efforts as part of the Kootenay Lake Action Plan, in collaboration with the Province of BC.

In April and May 2022, a KNC fisheries team spent 6 weeks capturing Gerrard Rainbow Trout at the mouth of the Duncan River in an effort to reduce predator pressure on juvenile Kokanee and promote population recovery.

The team was composed of fishing experts from the Flatbow Culture Preservation Group led by Robin Louie from Yaqan Nuʔkiy with the help of KNC’s ʔa·nusti technicians Lance Thomas and Jaydon Francis and Nupqu fisheries technician Dominique Nicholas.

The goal of the field program was to capture 100 to 150 Rainbow Trout and 50 to 100 Bull Trout to help restore the predator-prey balance in the lake.

Despite working at night in challenging conditions, the crew was quickly able to understand the patterns of fish movement at the mouth of the river and started catching fish consistently night after night.

After measuring and weighing captured fish for scientific purposes, the crew would often continue to work late into the night to clean, fillet, and freeze fish for distribution to Ktunaxa communities.

After 45 days of hard work, a total 149 Rainbow Trout and 62 Bull Trout were captured, successfully meeting the targets set by the scientific advisory team.

By leading this important project, the KNC was able to ensure that the work was conducted in an ethical manner following the Ktunaxa ʔa·kxamis q̓api qapsin principle.

Only the targeted fish were harvested and mitigation measures were successfully employed to minimize by-catch of non-targeted species.

This project also enabled community members to spend time and reconnect with a culturally significant part of ʔamaʔkis Ktunaxa.

Amongst all the memories and stories shared during the course of this project, the crew members will certainly remember their encounter in the middle of the night with a 6-foot long sturgeon that accidentally swam into their net and stared at them for a few moments before swimming away, unperturbed.