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No enhancement for ‘very Canadian’ steelhead

Biologist says province’s solution for Cheakamus ‘is synonymous to doing nothing’
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"What the whole thing should be about is the fish, what damage has been done and that CN should pay for it." Tass Gerhart, flyfishing guide. Photo by Maureen Provencal

"It’s about connecting it all in your head," flyfishing guide Tass Gerhart says as she leans into a cast on the Cheakamus River.

Gerhart is explaining flyfishing basics and casting for steelhead, the prize angling fish that once filled the river by the hundreds but now are reduced to a few dozen due to a Canadian National Railway derailment and caustic soda spill on the Cheakamus last summer. As a consequence, the Cheakamus was rated the most endangered river by the B.C. Outdoor Recreation Council in their 14 th annual list released this week.

Retrieve the cast by keeping line over right-hand little finger, pull line in with left, use a 11:00 — 3:00 pattern, lean into the cast – it sounds like work, but it’s something Gerhart, who grew up near Campbell River, has been doing most of her life.

"It’s a very calm, quiet activity, almost Zen-like," she said. "It is an art but can be learned by anybody, yet it’s something even advanced fishermen can still learn more about."

Gerhart has been guiding in Whistler for almost 10 years. She and husband Geoff operate Trout Country Fishing Guides and take approximately 250 guests a year to Whistler-area lakes and rivers for trout, salmon, and less frequently, steelhead.

"It’s not a big part of our business," she said "but the steelhead fishermen we do get are very serious about it."

Steelhead are an elite fish, she explained, elusive, difficult to catch, but powerful fighters with beautiful colours. She laughed and said they are also polite.

"When a big pushy run of salmon comes through they just kind of move to one side and let them all rush by – very Canadian."

Gerhart is concerned the provincial government has decided not to support steelhead enhancement on the Cheakamus, but her concern isn’t for guiding revenue as much as for the fish and because it’s the right thing to do.

"If anything, what the whole thing should be about is the fish, what damage has been done and that CN should fix it ," she said. "If that means put money into a steelhead program to recover what was lost, that’s what they should do."

That option was quashed by provincial Ministry of Environment officials – who have authority over steelhead but are opposed to steelhead fish enhancement, citing genetic sustainability concerns.

At two separate meetings of the Cheakamus Ecosystem Restoration Technical and Steering Committees last week, provincial biologists were firm on their contention that fish enhancement would be better served by increasing habitat and nutrient values in the river than by increasing numbers with hatchery juveniles culled from this month’s returning steelhead run. Ignoring arguments from a majority of committee members, that included representatives from CN, Squamish Nation, federal Environment and Fisheries biologists, and District of Squamish, the province voted against enhancement.

"Hatchery augmentation wouldn’t recover the runs significantly faster than just natural recovery, if at all," said Brian Clark, the Ministry of Environment’s Lower Mainland regional manager for special projects. "The long-term goal is that we’re going to be able to promote for tourism the fact that we have wild populations in that river."

Clark maintains that although steelhead were raised by the federal Tenderfoot Creek hatchery for many years, fry were only released for three years directly into the Cheakamus.

"And of the very small numbers released there were no returns – it didn’t prove successful," he said.

Not so, says fisheries biologist Josh Korman, who has worked on the Cheakamus for 10 years. Korman says returning hatchery steelhead have been reported in the Cheakamus as recently as last year. According to the Ministry of Environment’s own data, gathered from anglers who reported catching steelhead with hatchery-clipped adipose fins, between four and 88 hatchery steelhead returned annually between 1992 and 2003 in the Cheakamus River.

"This is an indication that hatchery fish are returning to the Cheakamus," Korman said. "There’s no doubt about that."

Reaction from the guiding community to the no-steelhead-enhancement decision has been swift.

"That Ministry (of Environment) just disgusts me," said Dave Brown, vice-chair, Squamish-Lillooet Sport Fishery Advisory Committee. "It’s absolutely unbelievable they’ll let that river go down the tubes."

Rios Sdrakas , owner of Rivers Edge Fishing in Squamish said steelhead are 99 per cent of his business this time of year. He doesn’t buy the province’s genetics arguments.

"Since 1991 those have not been wild fish (in the Cheakamus)," he said. "And the reasoning behind their action is they want to keep the stock wild and it’s not wild already."

Korman said the ministry’s argument for habitat restoration through nutrient enhancement and adding woody debris doesn’t wash.

"In the case of the Cheakamus the situation is that CN killed a bunch of fish and habitat was unaffected," Korman said. "Now that we’ve killed 90 per cent of those fish the rebuilding time isn’t a function of how much habitat was there but getting enough fish into the system to re-seed the habitat."

Korman said the province’s decision to opt for habitat enhancement "is synonymous to doing nothing." He said the ministry’s own data from habitat restoration projects on other rivers, like the Kehoe, point to the ineffectiveness of habitat enhancement.

"Their data shows that it didn’t work at all. You get into big systems like the Cheakamus with really big floods you don’t stand a chance with nutrient additions."

With volcanic phosphorous nutrients already inherent, Korman said the Cheakamus is an extremely productive river on its own and the province’s option is misguided.

"It’s kind of like if you’re a gardener and you’ve already fertilized your lawn you don’t get anything more by dumping more fertilizer on it, right?" he said. "They’re using it as an alternative to supplementation and it’s no alternative."

CN said it will comply with the ministry’s decision, the railway’s environment assistant vice-president said in an e-mail.

"Ministry experts assure us that a natural recovery will occur much quicker

than originally believed," Normand Pellerin said.