Smolt Migration of Interior Fraser Coho on the Coldwater River, using Rotary Screw Trap


Year 2006
Proponent Nicola Tribal Association
FSWP funding source Living Rivers
Grant amount $50,530
Total project value $72,500
ID number 2006 LR H 15

Location: Coldwater River

Project Summary

In the spring of 2006 the FSWP funded the Nicola Tribal Association to conduct a smolt migration project on Interior Fraser coho on the Coldwater River. This project is also a valuable component to PSF’s Coldwater River Recovery Plan. Through strategic placement and monitoring via a rotary screw trap, the stock assessment project aims to find out how many juvenile coho and steelhead smolts head to the ocean in order to better inform future habitat restoration projects.

1. Continue on previous years assessment work of juvenile coho emigrating from the Coldwater River
2. Monitor and evaluate whether the implementation of CRWRP results in increased salmonid species, coho, Chinook, and steelhead recruitment
3. Monitor timing and abundance of juvenile Coho and steelhead, provide cooperation with Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) program


Final Results

A five-foot rotary screw trap (RST) was operated in the Coldwater River at Merritt, BC during the period 24 April to 19 June 2006. Similar to 2005, the single RST was utilized to capture and mark juvenile fish as well as to re-capture the marked (caudal and/or dorsal fin-clipped) juvenile fish. A mark-recapture estimator was used to obtain total population estimates for coho and rainbow/steelhead using the Spius Creek Hatchery adipose-clipped fish (coho) released in the Coldwater River, and caudal/dorsal-clipped fish marked, released upstream, and re-captured at the RST.