Okanagan Lake will soon be gaining 8,000 sc’win (Okanagan sockeye salmon).
That’s thanks to a ceremonial fry release that took place Tuesday at Vernon Creek.
Over the year, roughly 4.9 million salmon will be released across the region as part of an ongoing project by the Okanagan Nation Alliance to restore salmon to Southern Interior waterways.
“We have a longstanding recovery program to return sockeye to the Okanagan basin,” explained Chad Fuller, the ONA’s fisheries program manager.
“And this is the highest up we have released fry, so that’s an exciting benchmark for us.”
The releases are based on decades of successful effort by the ONA to re-establish sockeye into the area, something the alliance says “contributes to both food security and cultural revitalization for Syilx people.”
Keith Louis is a member of the Okanagan Indian Band and worked for it during the first time salmon were released into local waterways, about 20 years ago.
“As a dream of the late Chief Albert Saddleman Jr. to get salmon back to the headwaters of the system ... we’re almost there,” said Louis.
“Salmon is very important, it’s a key food source, for not only the Syilx people, but also for nature,” he said.
The City of Vernon has pledged to work with the communities to aid in the reintroduction.
Vernon Creek in Polson Park is expected to start a renaturalization project this summer, in part to allow for better spawning habitat for sockeye, kokanee and other fish.
