Emergency Conservation Enhancement
TNG has led emergency conservation enhancement activities for our most vulnerable salmon populations since 2020 in response to the Big Bar Landslide crisis, which pushed already vulnerable salmon populations to the edge and created an immediate risk of extirpation (local extinction). We are now expanding these activities to broader stock recovery. TNG has been leading brood stock collection on the spawning grounds in our Territory, in partnership with UFFCA and DFO.
What is emergency conservation enhancement?
Emergency enhancement increases the number of offspring produced by spawning salmon by improving their chance of survival – it’s essentially performing CPR on our extremely vulnerable salmon populations as a last resort to keep them from blinking out.
In summer and early fall when adult salmon return to their natal streams to spawn, our field crew captures some of them as brood (parent) stock. They collect eggs and milt (sperm), fertilize and incubate the eggs, and rear the juvenile salmon to the fry stage in hatchery facilities. Then in the spring, the juvenile fry are released back into their natal streams.
Highlights:
- We’re conducting brood stock collection in extremely remote areas where it hadn’t been attempted before; there are a lot of unknowns, and the stakes are extremely high!
- Without TNG staff’s in-depth knowledge of their systems and fish, this brood stock collection would not be possible.
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