Somass Fish Flow Communication Minutes June 21, 2013 10:00Am

Somass Fish-Flow Communication

Conference Call Minutes – October 9, 2015 10:00 – 10:35 am

Attendees:

Larry Cross, CatalystAshley Popovich, Catalyst

Wuben Luo, BC HydroSteve Emmonds, Robertson Creek Hat, DFO

Carol Schmitt, Omega HatcheryMargaret Wright, Resource Restoration, DFO

1. Somass/Stamp/Sproat flows/lake storage - Larry

GCL level = 4.8 ft., down 3 ft. from 2 weeks ago. Pulling logs today in anticipation of the weekend’s rain, that leaves 3 logs in each bay of the dam. Larry’s target is to remove 1 more row in a week which should then put us at our “October 20” winter target (for the number of remaining stop logs). Per normal winter operations, the actual lake level will be dictated by rain events. (see last years green level trend on the chart below). The Red (2015) lake level line is exactly on the pink dotted line, which is the rule curve for bringing the level down to a minimum lake level for dam safety and spawning sockeye.

1. Inlet water quality – Larry

Cooler and better water quality conditions in the Inlet.

Margaret will check with Kim Hyatt and Howard Stiff regarding a follow-up Somass Salmon and Climate Watch Update.

1. Fish movement / Fisheries – Steve

Coho returns have been poor to date. Once the chinook started to show up in numbers, the few coho moved away.

There are large numbers of chinook outside of the hatchery fence; the sex ratio is 8% female due to the majority of 3 year old fish, which tend to be male. Last week 1st egg take showed 5% ripeness, presently ripeness is 25%, next week it should be 75%. Steve’s assumption is that the females are holding in the lagoon until they are ripe.

The hatchery is currently holding 500 female chinook; they will need 1900 females to get their target number of eggs.

Some chinook moving up past the hatchery to the spawning grounds. Chinook are moving through the GCL fishway unimpeded.

Chinook escapement count as of Sept 26 is 34,145.

1. Ash generation / Elsie Lake diversion – Wuben

Wuben will be taking over for Joel Evans for Hydro on the Ash.

Weather: Forecasting 3 moderate storms, first one happening now, 2nd on Sat., then a short break before another coming Sun./Mon. Result is forecast at 20-30 mm per day. Ash River will be 40-50 cms over the weekend. Hydro will be maintaining minimum flow requirement in the Ash River above 3.7 cms.

Elsie Lake level is 322.5 ft. Unit is scheduled to return to generation today after the ~2 week maintenance shutdown. It will run at full load, which results in a ~13cms inflow to GCL for a while.

Wuben will update public website.

1. Lake shore observations – Carol

Carol has observed some sockeye swimming off beach in front of Omega hatchery, a few with fungus on their head.

Carol will provide an update to the group with respect to the timing of the sockeye spawning in her area as the fall proceeds.

1. Water Management – All

No concerns for water level being too high or too low.

No action required at this time as water levels and flows are sufficient and fish are actively migrating and moving onto spawning grounds.

Next conference call as required.