A joint project of ONA (Okanagan Nation Alliance) and the DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) to examine the health of the fish stock in Okanagan River.

Sockeye are first netted in the river and placed in holding cells – one by one they are brought to the scientists shown below for sampling. Viruses was the word mentioned by DFO staff as the area of interest.

Other programs on the river:

Broodstock collection and egg-take occurs on the Okanagan River near Oliver in mid-October. Eggs and milt are delivered to the Shuswap River Hatchery for fertilization and incubation.

Fish are captured by beach seining—using a crew of eight to ten staff and a large net, the net is floated and dragged over a promising section of river, and then drawn closed and brought to shore to count and sort through the captured fish. Only a small portion of the captured fish will be kept for the egg-take process. These fish are placed into holding bags mounted upon a floating frame and floated down to the broodstock site.

Objectives of broodstock include:
•Collecting a predetermined number of adult male and female sockeye spawners, while keeping disturbance of redds and stress levels of captured fish at a minimum.
•Fertilizing, incubating, thermally marking all sockeye, and externally marking a portion of the fry and rearing them to approximately 1 gram in size.
•Determining the frequency or certain pathogens in the spawners during egg collection, and in the fry during hatchery rearing and prior to release.