The Skeena Fisheries Commission (SFC) is made up of five First Nations who do fisheries work within their respective traditional territories in both the Skeena and Nass Watersheds. They include the Gitxsan, Gitanyow, Wet’suwet’en, Lake Babine Nation and Lax Kw’alaams. Currently, both the Gitxsan and Gitanyow conduct annual coho coded-wire tag (CWT) projects in the Skeena Watershed to monitor coho abundance, estimate smolt production, fisheries exploitation and to determine Skeena coho ocean survival. These programs are important because the information collected improves fisheries managers’ abilities to manage coho salmon stocks in the Skeena River by better understanding exploitation rates in U.S. and Canadian fisheries. It also allows managers to determine ocean survival rates for upper and middle Skeena coho stocks because both the Gitxsan and Gitanyow programs accurately enumerate all marked and unmarked returning adult coho annually (fence operations), something that is often not available in many other CWT programs in BC.
SFC is requesting funds from the PSC Northern Fund to purchase CWT equipment. SFC will retain ownership of the equipment in the event that it is decided by SFC commissioners/technical experts that the equipment could be put to better use within one of the other areas where our signatory First Nations conduct works. Any decision to move the equipment for use in another part of the watershed would be done in consultation with the GFA.