Steelhead Tagging Program at Moricetown Canyon

Wet'suwet'en Fisheries conducted a steelhead tagging program here at Moricetown Canyon on the Bulkley River in 2007. The main goal was to keep an eye on when steelhead, also known as *Oncorhynchus mykiss*, were moving through the canyon and how many there were. This canyon is about 30 kilometers north of Smithers, British Columbia.

This 2007 study was actually a continuation of earlier tagging efforts that started back in 1999. They've also been tagging adult coho and sockeye salmon here, though that data is analyzed separately by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Chinook salmon have been tagged at Moricetown since 2002 as well.

The steelhead tagging program was designed by Wet'suwet'en Fisheries, with input from B.C. Environment and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The first three years of the program got funding from Fisheries Renewal B.C. and FOC, and then FOC funded the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years.

SKR Consultants Ltd. was brought in by Wet'suwet'en Fisheries to monitor the data collection, summarize the steelhead information, and make recommendations for future data collection related to steelhead migration through the canyon between 1999 and 2004.

There were some budget constraints in 2005, 2006, and 2007 that meant Wet'suwet'en Fisheries couldn't fund the data analysis and reporting for the steelhead data collected in those years. And additional constraints prevented independent QA assessments in 2006 and 2007. The Ministry of Environment then retained SKR Consultants Ltd. to do a basic data analysis and report on the data collected after 2005, following a recommendation from the Independent Science Panel.

This specific report summarizes steelhead data collected from August 3rd to September 29th, 2007. The results for the 2005 and 2006 tagging projects are in separate reports. The objectives for this project were to monitor the timing of steelhead migrations, review and summarize the collected data, and estimate the number of steelhead upstream of Moricetown Canyon in the fall and winter of 2007.