The 1999 fishwheel project on the Nass River, BC / prepared by Richard F. Alexander.: Fs97-4/2588E-PDF

"Four fishwheels were operated on the lower Nass River from 7 June to 30 September 1999. The fishwheels operated for a total of 9,073 h and captured 74,201 salmon. Catches of adult salmon included 41,545 sockeye, 22,019 pink, 6,393 coho, 3,476 chinook, 641 steelhead, and 127 chum. Of these, 10,755 sockeye, 4,121 coho, 2,502 chinook salmon, and 571 steelhead were tagged. Totals of 513 chinook, 1,959 sockeye and 774 coho salmon from the catch were successfully aged using scales. A total of 10,019 tagged fish were later recovered (or observed) at the Meziadin fishway, in in-river fisheries and on tributaries of the Nass River. From 23 July to 25 August, a total of 7,858 sockeye were selectively harvested from all the fishwheels as part of escapement surplus to spawning requirements (ESSR) fishery. Counts of marked and unmarked fish from the Meziadin fishway and in-river harvests were used to compute net escapement estimates for sockeye (210,957) and coho salmon (64,059). The coho estimate represented only a portion of the total coho escapement because the fishwheels did not operate through the entire coho run and recovery efforts were confined to an early run stock (Meziadin River). The net chinook escapement (11,544) was derived by a mark-recapture estimate (spawning ground surveys) minus estimated in-river harvests above Grease Harbour tagging sites. The four fishwheels combined caught an estimated 28.0% of the chinook run, 9.9% of the coho run, and 18.0% of the sockeye run. Including subsequent in-river harvests, an estimated 20,609 chinook and 256,022 sockeye salmon entered the Nass River in 1999. Daily tag release (at the fishwheels) and recovery data (at the Meziadin fishway) were used to reconstruct the sockeye abundance in the lower river and assess the within-season variation in the portion of the sockeye run caught by the fishwheels"--Abstract, page x.

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publications.gc.ca/pub?id=9.964407&sl=0

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