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The chum salmon (Onchorynchus keta) that migrate up the Porcupine River system are a culturally important food source for the Vuntut Gwitch’in First Nation (VGFN). The Fishing Branch River, located in the Canadian section of the Porcupine, is part of the VGFN’s traditional territory and is where most of the fall chum salmon originate. Serious conservation concerns for this run were first raised in the late 1990’s and have continued as indicated by the downward trend seen at the Fishing Branch Weir.
This project proposes to organize a two-day LTK gathering workshop in Old Crow in April/May, 2016. This will involve the communities of Old Crow (Yukon) and Fort Yukon (Alaska), agencies and other stakeholders concerned with the Fall Chum run (and to some extent Chinook salmon) in the Porcupine drainage. As a means to enhance the scientific research in regards to escapement, habitat, productivity, hydrology, geology, predation, and climate change the workshop will focus on addressing those issues. Half a day will be directed towards strategizing community based initiatives for stock restoration.
The Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee (YSSC) has designed and developed a web-based mapping platform that can populate a Yukon River drainage-wide map with quantitative and qualitative data.  This mapping platform serves as a tool to document scientific and technical data, community engagement, LTK and stock restoration (SR) initiatives. Relevant and appropriate information gathered from the workshop will be placed on the mapping platform for the public and agencies to utilize for the purpose of information sharing and management planning.

Our goal is the development and maintenance of community capacity in the Dawson City region to protect, maintain and restore salmon stocks and habitats. Each year, two local high school students who have not participated in the project in past years are hired as Student Stewards. They work under the field supervision of an experienced elder and the technical guidance of a retired DFO biologist, and are provided with a wide range of hands-on training through participation in a variety of salmon and salmon habitat management and research activities. Proposed activities include the monitoring of 0+ Chinook salmon growth and habitat utilisation, ground water fed rearing channel habitat monitoring, riparian restoration principles, and ground truthing of placer maps. Depending on environmental conditions, 0+ Chinook fry salvage and access restoration may take place, and we may partner with DFO as we have in the past to conduct genetic analysis on some 0+ Chinook. The context of any activities undertaken will be explained to the Student Stewards so that they are given an opportunity not only to understand what they are doing, but why they are doing it.
At the end of the funded field work component of the project, the Student Stewards will demonstrate their acquired skills and knowledge to children and community members in a Public Involvement Day. Opportunities will be sought to increase the exposure of the project through the local media and in presentations to the public.

The goal of this project is to quantify distribution of juvenile and adult Chinook salmon in the Yukon River mid-mainstem, in areas of limited knowledge, to allow for greater protection and to identify potential spawning and rearing habitat restoration sites. Specifically, the objectives are to 1) conduct habitat assessments to characterize aquatic health and habitat, and to determine the extent of juvenile Chinook distribution, and 2) determine the extent of spawner distribution within tributaries to the Little Salmon River, Nordenskiold River and Big Creek. The data will also be used to update the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation (LSCFN) salmon database, created by the LSCFN Salmon Knowledge Study (CRE-141N-10).

To effectively manage Yukon River Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) salmon stocks originating from Canada, fishery managers require an understanding of the stock composition of the run as it enters the river. Canadian-origin Chinook salmon migrate through approximately 1,200 miles of fisheries in the Alaska portion of the drainage. An estimate of the Canadian-origin Chinook salmon run strength and migration timing is vital to ensuring that appropriate management actions are taken to meet border escapement objectives. This project helps in the management of Yukon River Chinook salmon by providing estimates of stock composition of Chinook salmon migrating past the mainstem sonar project near Pilot Station in the lower portion of the Yukon River. The ADF&G Gene Conservation Laboratory (GCL) creates in-season stock composition estimates by genotyping samples from the sonar project test fishery, and using the resulting genotypes to perform mixed stock analysis (MSA). Of particular importance to fishery managers is identification of the Canadian-origin component of the Chinook salmon run.

Deliverables from this project will include in-season analyses of the Canadian-origin component of Chinook salmon passage, which will be disseminated to key fishery research and management staff, from Federal and State agencies, in both the U.S. and Canada. The results will be published in department News Releases in-season, the Yukon River Panel United States/Canada Joint Technical Committee’s (JTC) annual report, and in a final report to the Yukon River Panel, including relevant comparisons to historical data and observed trends.

All Chinook salmon raised in the Whitehorse Rapids Fish Hatchery are tagged with a coded wire tag before they are released. On average, this is about 150,000 juvenile fish per year. Though the coded wire tag itself is very small, these fish can be identified by their clipped adipose fin; facilitating submission of its head to agencies such that the coded wire tag can be read and the fish can be identified.
The application of coded wire tags to these fish has been going on since the early 1980s and represents a rich and consistent source of data to understand movement, survival, and the proportion of a stock that is caught in fisheries. However, to get robust estimates of these important variables, recoveries of tagged fish need to be co-ordinated, encouraged and analyzed.
The purpose of this project is to identify, collate, and report on all historic recoveries of coded wire tags from Canadian-origin Yukon River Chinook salmon. It will also have an outreach component, to increase the submission of coded wire tags that are recovered in fisheries in the Yukon and Alaska so that more information can be obtained from the tags.

This project proposes to operate a sonar enumeration program on the lower Pelly River (downstream of the community of Pelly Crossing) for the purpose of enumerating Chinook salmon that spawn in the mainstem Pelly River and all of its tributaries. The Pelly River supports Selkirk First Nation’s (SFN) Chinook salmon fishery and is one of the largest contributors of Canadian origin Yukon River Chinook salmon, based on genetic stock identification, at the Eagle Sonar site near the Canada/U.S. border. There is currently no index of Chinook salmon escapement for the mainstem of the Pelly River and SFN is keen on developing a more localized means to manage this important Chinook stock.

SFN has recently entered into dialogue with DFO’s Yukon staff with regard to the local management of the Pelly River Chinook salmon stock; it is SFN’s intention take a more active role in the management and conservation of Chinook salmon in the Pelly River through a locally developed Salmon Management Plan. The first stage of this local Salmon Management Plan includes developing an SFN operated stock assessment program for Chinook salmon on the Pelly River, and in support of this objective, SFN conducted a reconnaissance survey of the lower Pelly River in August 2015 and located a candidate sonar site with a bathymetric profile, current pattern and river banks shape/composition that is suited to the operation of split-beam or multi-beam sonar. The site is located approximately 20 km upstream of the mouth of the Pelly River and is downstream of all but one of SFN citizen’s fish camps. This site could also support a test fishery for species apportionment, as well as a seasonal field camp to support the operation of the sonar program.

The first goal of this project is to begin the development of an accurate, in-season stock assessment tool to estimate the annual passage rates for Chinook salmon in the Pelly River. The second goal of this project is to begin to build local capacity, including technical training and full time employment for local SFN citizens.

https://www.facebook.com/cbcyukon/videos/1045001332261477/

Video Source: CBC

The McIntyre Creek Salmon Incubation Project (MCSIP) is a groundwater sourced, gravity-fed salmon incubation facility capable of rearing fish from egg-take through to tagged and release-ready stage. The facility has functioned for nearly 20 years, collecting salmon broodstock from the wild, fertilizating and incubating eggs, rearing and feeding  juveniles, adipose fin clipping and inserting coded-wire tags (CWTs) in preparation for release into the wild. In previous years MCSIP has focused on enhancement and fostering of stewardship through the rearing and release of Yukon River Chinook salmon juveniles back into natal streams, as well as stock restoration of depopulated streams undergoing stock restoration. For example, Whitehorse Rapids Fishway eggs have primarily been used to re-stock Fox Creek as part of Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation’s (TKFN) Fox Creek Salmon Stock Restoration Project. MCSIP provides facilities for the initial incubation of small numbers of other salmon eggs which are destined for classroom incubation projects as part of the Stream to Sea Program, and has served as a test site to refine the use of heath stack incubators and thermal marking units, which have been developed at the site.

MCSIP was initially founded as a stewardship and enhancement project, and continues to be a significant resource for Yukon River salmon. MCSIP focuses on two main target groups within the larger community; first nations interested in stock restoration of depopulated chinook salmon streams (e.g. TKFN), and students. Both elementary and Yukon College students use MCSIP as part of their educational experience. Renewable Resources Management 134: Introduction to Salmon Hatcheries and Related Fisheries Practices is a course developed with and for MCSIP. Yukon College students also provide paid labor and management of the day-to-day operation of the hatchery during the school year, providing even more practical training and responsibility. This hands-on experience has proven very valuable for student’s ongoing education and work careers.

Groups of Upper Yukon River Chinook salmon have been tagged annually in Yukon since 1985, when hatchery fry were first released from the new Whitehorse Rapids Hatchery. Over 80% of all Whitehorse Rapids Hatchery fish have been tagged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada or by the Yukon Fish and Game Association. The long term goal of the project is to ensure on-going tagging of all hatchery contributions for management, assessment and monitoring purposes as per the current Pacific salmon CWT program outlined above. The short term goal (3 years) is to implement a coordinated tagging program to support anticipated stock recovery efforts as identified through focused Yukon River Panel restoration priorities between 2016 and 2019. Overall, the objective is to ensure that all Chinook salmon reared in a hatchery facility are marked via CWT (and adipose clip) in order to differentiate them from wild-reared fish.

Interest in salmon stock and habitat restoration within the Yukon Territory has increased amid significant declines in Canadian-origin Yukon River Chinook over the past 15 years. The Yukon River Panel has also made Stock Restoration a priority with an expanded focus between 2016 and 2019.

Yukon First Nations and Canadian stakeholders are both leaders and potential partners that could support efforts to actively engage in the restoration of Yukon River Chinook salmon stocks in Canada. However, it is recognized that in order to undertake effective and appropriate stock restoration initiatives, there must be community support and the willingness and ability for salmon stakeholders to understand and play a role in the implementation of the stock restoration initiative. It is also essential that any proposed restoration action must be based on a plan that encompasses sound biological, technical and local/traditional knowledge parameters. The Yukon River Chinook Salmon Stock Restoration Community Technical Team provides this higher-level, drainage wide direction while working towards the implementation of strategic and specific stock restoration initiatives throughout the Yukon River drainage.

The two overarching goals of this multi-year project are to (1) support the development of a stock restoration framework based on community values, which can be used to help develop, evaluate and prioritize Chinook stock restoration initiatives in the Canadian portion of the Yukon River and (2) provide technical support and capacity building at the First Nation and community level for the implementation of priority stock restoration activities.

The Porcupine River has its headwaters in the Yukon, and flows into Alaska before joining the Yukon River at Fort Yukon and hence to the Bering Sea. Chinook, chum and coho salmon return to the Porcupine River to spawn. These transboundary stocks are of importance to both Canada and the U.S.A., and so is the good management of these stocks. This project provides reliable and timely (in-season) information on both Chinook and chum salmon returning to the Porcupine River in Canada, and is the only reliable means of in-season assessment for both Chinook salmon and chum salmon available to US and Canadian fishery managers. Information on returns of these stocks as assessed in the lower Yukon River (i.e., passage of Chinook and chum salmon at Pilot Station in combination with genetic apportionment to the Porcupine River) is available, but is of low reliability and inappropriate for in-season management.

A sonar program has been operating just downstream of Old Crow to determine passage of chum and Chinook salmon since 2011 and 2014 respectively. This proposal combines both the Chinook and chum projects into one project for 2017 to achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings. Fisheries and Oceans Canada also operates a chum salmon enumeration project on the Fishing Branch River – a 14 day travel time upstream from Old Crow. This project provides reliable data as to whether the spawning escapement goal (as set by the Yukon River Panel) is achieved.

The Vuntut Gwitch’in Government (VGG) has been conducting sonar based stock assessment of Chinook salmon at the Old Crow Sonar site on the Porcupine River since 2014. For 2017, this will be combined with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s chum assessment project to achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings. Fisheries and Oceans Canada also operates a chum salmon enumeration project on the Fishing Branch River – a 14 day travel time upstream from Old Crow. This project provides reliable data as to whether the spawning escapement goal (as set by the Yukon River Panel) is achieved.