The Campbell River Salmon Foundation has funded 15 projects on the adjacent mainland, totally over $160,000.00. Our largest funding ever was $100,000.00+ on the Homathko River in Bute Inlet. Our primary partner for mainland projects is the Gillard Pass Fisheries Association, who are located out of the Stuart/Sonora Island area.
Gillard Pass operates a small hatchery/research facility on the Sonora Island that underwent a major upgrade in 2023 thanks in part to funding from CRSF is responsible for rebuilding the Phillips River Chinook from a low of 2-300 fish in 2000 and 2001, to average returns of 2500+ in recent years and 3,500 in 2023. Coastwide, the overall size of returning BC Chinook salmon is decreasing, but some of these Phillips River Chinook are monsters, exceeding 60lbs. In the past few years, no hatchery-raised Chinook have been released in the Phillips, but monitoring has continued to see if the current rebuilt run sizes can be naturally maintained.
In 2022 Gillard Pass was working with the Homalco First Nation, and the UBC Pacific Salmon Lab to study the chinook returning to the Homathko and Southgate Rivers (Bute Inlet). Though only 70 miles from Campbell lRiver, the chinook salmon in these rivers have not been assessed and studied, due to the rugged terrain, inhospitable weather and poor accessibility.
Goals for the ongoing project are to understand the relative abundance of Southgate vs. Homathko, measure the timing of freshwater entry, selective marking & tagging to track individual fish and obtaining current and accurate DNA samples from both rivers. Preliminary results suggest a run size estimate of less than 1,000 Chinook for the Southgate River in 2023, with a rough estimate of 1.5x to 2.0x for the Homathko. However, much more work is required to build confidence in these estimates. Additionally, Gillard Pass is raising its second cohort of Southgate Chinook in its hatchery and these fish will all be coded write tagged prior to release back to the river this spring.
The Gillard Pass crew will be back up to Bute Inlet in 2024, studying the rivers and their fish, while dodging the abundant grizzly bears. An amazing crew and a proven success that CRSF is happy to support.