STORIES

Friday, October 06, 2006

Finding the Adams River Sockeye

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Community: Thompson

Chasting the Sockeye, Part 3 (Part 2, Part 1)

I wake to weak light coming in the window from the sun partly risen over Little Shuswap Lake. The wind has blown all night and our room is cool. A crisp fall feeling fills the air. A sense of urgency fills me. Today we meet the Sockeye we have travelled so far to see.

We rise and dress quickly. The Quaaout Lodge where we’re staying is quiet after hosting a wedding party featuring cowboy hats and seafoam dresses the night before. We walk down to the beach under tall pine trees and over sandy soil, the only ones up yet.

Gulls, crows and eagles have gathered in bunches along the line where the beach meets the receded waters of Little Shuswap Lake. A group of them take flight as we draw near and see the lumps of dead salmon they’ve been feeding on. Spread out all along the beach, these birds cluster and squabble around the dead fish, pecking the eyes out before eating the rest of the meat.

We walk the line where the beach meets the water to see the salmon, mostly Sockeye with an occasional Chinook mixed in. After so long on the trail of the Sockeye, we still have only found dead ones. I watch the shallow water rolling in waves with hope for a jumper but only see groups of gulls. We’ll have to press on further.

We gather with the rest of the THINK SALMON team and set off for the Roderick Haig-Brown provincial park, the site of the Salute to the Salmon festival. Signs tacked to the electical polls along the road point the way from 5 kms out. We slow behind some other vehicles at the one-lane bridge crossing the Adams River, wait our turn to cross and finally get a chance to look down into the water.

I’m driving so it’s hard to look for long but I catch sight of the right shape and colour moving in the water. They’re here. It feels exhilirating to finally see the Sockeye alive and vibrant in the pulsing water.

We find Volunteer Parking spots and gather with the rest of the team to plan our course of action. The banners and materials for the THINK SALMON booth get unloaded, we set up a table and then take turns going to the water to see the salmon.

Finally it’s my turn. I set out along a gravel path. I cross a shallow spawning channel on a short bridge and hear the water ahead. A viewing platform stands off in the distance along the path but I don’t wait. I follow a trail through the bush to the shore. I duck under a tree branch and there they are, red and beautiful and wriggling in the current. They swim right in front of me, tucked in beside the bank in the slower water. Four or five Sockeye that have travelled over 400 kilometers hold in that water of the Adams River.

I stand silently and watch them. One male jets forward upstream to the next patch of calmer water and two more Sockeye pull in from downstream to the holding water in front of me. All across the river this same gradual push forward happens. The bright red swishes of colour surge forward, bit by bit at a time, searching for the right place in the river and the right mate to spawn with.

I could go on about the colour and shape and wonder of the Sockeye of Adams River, but just look at the photos and you’ll see. Over the next few days and weeks we’ll be posting the stories we collected at Adams River to share some of the magic of the experience.

Like the Sockeye, come back to begin again, make sure you come back to hear the stories.

• Read Chasing the Sockeye, part 1: From Vancouver to Hope.
• Read Chasing the Sockeye, part 2: From Hope to the Shuswap.
• See all our photos on the THINK SALMON Flickr page.