Small turnout Sunday for celebrating the salmon event

“There should be lots of opportunity to view spawning Sockeye salmon this year,” says Lee McFadyen who works with the Okanagan River Restoration Initiative. “153,632 sockeye have passed through the Fish Passage Center at Wells Dam in Washington State. In 2017 – 42,299 sockeye were recorded at the last dam on the Columbia River before fish turn up the Okanogan River”.

Compare that to ten years earlier: In 2007 – 22,273 sockeye recorded and one year later 165,334. Salmon return each year to spawn but every four years the figure
goes as high as it is.

Celebrate the return of sockeye salmon coming home after a 6000-kilometre journey to the Pacific Ocean and back. Interpreters will be on hand to talk about the life cycle of the sockeye salmon, the challenges these fish face as they travel through different habitats and the efforts to restore spawning habitat in the South Okanagan.

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Photo essay from east bank of Okanagan River – north of VDS 13 (Vertical Drop Structure) Oliver BC – at low water, adjacent to the ORRI project.