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Location: Thompson, Thompson - Okanagan - Kootenay Project Summary
Overview Alien Invasive Fish Species (AIFS) are entering our interior lakes and waterways, posing a growing threat to our salmon populations and natural aquatic ecosystems. Sport fishing, food fish, and commercial fishing opportunities could be affected as well as public access to various lakes in the future. This project seeks to address this looming threat through prevention, early detection and rapid response. All Fraser River salmon populations could be affected by AIFS. Hands-on salmon education and AIFS preventative knowledge will be given to thousands of school children province wide through field trips to our Centre and through Invasive Species Curriculum. Action based education will take place on Gardom Lake to monitor aquatic insect populations before and after a lake treatment. Salmon and AIFS education/information will also be passed on through newspaper advertising and to the summer visitors to the Centre. This information is an integral part of eliminating the voluntary and involuntary spread of invasive species. Early detection inventories will continue within the Fraser River Watershed to determine the range of AIFS in the Thompson/Shuswap. Comparing last year’s data with this year’s data will determine how quickly these species are spreading. This information is the key to controlling AIFS in the future. Objectives Methods The preventative knowledge and salmon based education will be delivered through field trips to our Interpretive Centre. These award winning environmental education field trips support DFO’s ‘Stream to Sea’ initiative providing school children with a hands-on salmon experience. We will incorporate the Invasive Species information into this already successful learning environment. Education and information will be transferred into several other school districts province wide through the Invasive Species Curriculum that was developed last year. We will send the curriculum developer to other districts to present the materials to teachers and provide them with an in-class demonstration. Summer visitors to the Centre will also be offered salmon based education and invasive species education to try and provide further prevention of the intentional and unintentional spread. The Centre is also used as a resource centre for folks interested in gaining more knowledge and insight about salmon, ecology, invasive species, watersheds, riparian zones etc. KICS will be taking AIFS displays and information to 12 different events to further spread knowledge and understanding to the general public. We will focus on such events that will target those most likely to Ôinvoluntarily spreadÕ invasive species such as fishing derbies and gun shows. Spiny-Ray Fish Species inventories will continue to be conducted throughout the Thompson/Shuswap through various collection techniques designed by Fisheries and Oceans. KICS, the Spallumcheen Band and the Little Shuswap Band will be using Fyke nets, G-traps, seine nets and other various capture methods to determine presence/absence of these species. The data collected through last year’s inventories will be used to assess further spread of the invasive fish. DFO will continue to research various disposal techniques for population control. They will be trying to find a more socially sensitive approach to dealing with the eradication of these threatening populations while formulating a management plan.
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