SOCKEYE SALMON are scooped up by the hundreds by the cel er ER arosn gee es Kitselas band’s fish wheels in Kitselas Canyon. After two dis- astrous years trying, they've perfected the wheel and are now SILVER DOLLARS reaping the rewards. Plans for the future could even include their own processing plant. Thats fisherman Terry Collins, river guardian Wade Larson and fishery manager Wilfred McKenzie. After three years of trying, Kitselas natives reinvent the fish wheel - — and start making money By JEFF NAGEL HE RIVER BOAT roars into the bottom end of Kitselas Can- yon, and the water turns eerily quiet as the powerful . tug of the Skeena pauses. - Here. it is like the eye of the hurricane. Here is where we will “Gnd the fish. "Around the corner, tethered to fhe sheer rock canyon walls are _ two giant. wooden contraptions, oO rotating quietly. The Kitselas band’s fish wheels turn constantly. "Every. few minutes, a Mipping, a gleaming prize is scooped up into "-the'crisp air and slides diagonally -. along the wooden guides into the ‘holding tanks which form the pontoons, ° Terry Collins steps aboard the wheel and :dips a net into the holding tank. ~~ Qut come half a dozen writhing -silver salmon. “The wheel is working very ‘well, this. year,’ says Gitaus . Fisheries manager and wheel . designer ~ These guys have got it down to Wilfred: McKenzie. ~ -ascience now.’ The success smells swect, espe- “cially after they spent the last two seasons wrestling with the wheel "and coming up empty. They went to a three-scoop de- ~sign-this year because they found: "slowing currents in July and Au- gust | couldn’t power a fworscoop “2 model. one guess ‘you could say we've reinvented the wheel,’ McKenzie Says. - ve The: other ctitical element was - placement. “Tt took time to get 1o know the KITSELAS FISHERMEN Glenn Bennett and Ben Auckland dump another dip ni net of sockeye into the tote. The wheel means jobs for seven band members during the inland fishery. river and find the right loca- tions,’’ he says. In previous seasons they tried operating the wheel under the old bridge. It didn’t work and they finally settled on Kitselas Canyon, up- stream towards Usk, as the ideal location. It’s an appropriate place for Kitselas fishermen, because their ancestors used a fortress in the canyon to contro! all irade on the __ river for centuries. At the turn of the. century, paddiewheelers started sicaming up the Skeena, Giant ringbolts driven into the rock ‘walls of the canyon were used to line ithe tiverboats ONCE ASHORE, fishermen transfer the sockeye to a large con- tainer on the back of a pickup. The load is delivered to North Sea Procucts at Port Edward. through the treacherous waters. “A hundred years ago our members were working the paddlewheelers in the canyon,’’ McKenzie says. “‘We’re even using the same ringbolts they used to moor the fish wheels.” Tn less than two hours, the tanks of the fish wheels are empty and there are 174 sockeye in the bin of the riverboat — one day’ 8, catch. Another 850 fish — including every species of salmon in the river plus steelhead, a few cels, and some trout — are thrown back. , Because the fish aren’t gill netted, they can be released alive | and healthy. This type of selective fishery has earned growing respect from all quarters. The commercial fishery at the coast has been severely curtalled because of declining runs in weak stocks, such as wild coho and steelhead. The problem is that those weak “runs enter the river at the same lime as one giant artificially en- hanced mun of Babine River sock- eye. Every full net: “of sockeye - hauled onto the deck of a gillnet- ter pulls in some of the weaker specics, and drives them another step closer to extinction. Selective methods, like fish wheels, enable fishermen to take the plentiful Babine sockeye without harming other weaker runs. “Tf you’re looking al conserv- ing those depressed stocks like steelhead and coho, the fish wheel is the only way to go,”’ says McKenzie. ‘It’s a good way to fish,’’ he adds. ‘‘The fish come up clean. There are no net marks on them.’’. And processors have responded: by paying them nearly $2 a pound -— almost double, the price they: pay for Gsh taken by glllnsiters on the coast. The Kitselas band was allocated 17,000 sockeye this year under aboriginal fishery agreements. By late last weck they had caught about 3,500 sockeye for commercial sale. To make it actually econom- cal,”’ McKenzie says, ‘I think « we have to put in two more wheels.” Once the fish are loaded into’ another tote on shore, they’re . driven to North Sea Products in . Port Edward in the back of a pickup truck. . Any profits from the fishery go CATCH OF THE DAY: .B 174 sockeye — taken @ 350 jack (Immature) sock- eye — released @ 450 pinks — released B 15 steelhead — released @ 12 coho — released w@ 12 chum — released B 1 chinook — released i A few eels and trout — released, 7 to the band’s resource manage- ment department and will be used to help train more band members in forestry and fisheries manage- ment, McKenzie said. ‘They’re making their first boat payment this year — something “many fishermen on both coasts wish they could: do — and McKenzie has big plans for the future. “Next year If we get a good Tun, we're. looking at setting up our own processing pilant,”’ he Says. , One possibility is to build a commercial smoker into It as well, he said. “The sockeye fishery ended for “the »Kitselas on’ Monday. But they're keeping the wheel turning for a few more days lo catch, tag -and release steelhead for the De- - ; partment of Fisheries and Oceans. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 24, 1994 - AS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD ; An open letter ta Alison Webb: The Mail Bag Company praised Dear Sin In the announcement last week that the world’s largest coastal temperate rainforest (The Kitlope) has been protected, my impres- sion was that not neatly enough credil was given to West Fraser Timber Co. for what was truly a bold and positive step by a forest company to make it possible. Perhaps it was the coverage by the southern media which gave the impression that it was solely a government initiative. The point needs to be made that West Fraser decided to give up their right to log the Kitlope and that they did so voluntarily giving up their Tights to compensation. As someone who has at times become disheartened at the war in the woods; as someone who has witnessed the Clayoquot protests and the 20,000 forest industry workers on the lawn of the Jegisla- ture, the Kitlope announcement wes a very pleasant contrast. No doubt there will be a few detractors, but most people recog- nize the need to compromise in order to solve many of the Jand use conflicts in B.C, today. > Thank you and congratulations West Fraser Timber! Helmut Giesbrecht, MLA, Skeena _ Airport plan a bad idea» Dear Sir: It looks like our senior governments are downloading onto ihelr junior partners and local people one more time, and as always, the _ locals are all set to jump into the wrong barrel. ' I truly had thought that the downloading of our fcderal air traffic and airport structure would die with the same thud that the Conser- vative party did. But they still don’t understand the value of air transport to this vast country of Canada, or their responsibility to maintain the sys- tem of reliable aizports across the country. The story is that airports are losing money, but that all depends on which set of books are available for inspection. The Terrace airport runs at a loss, and the feds want to cut their losses, shift the tax bur- den to locals, yet still collect $4 million dollars a year from local air : travellers, Nice trick? They are already doing it, but at present they do pick up the oper- ation shortfall. You see, there is a surcharge on every ticket sold for a flight into or out of Terrace, It was $45 on a fare in 1993, Pas- senger movements last year were 90,000, That is the big $4 million money maker that people i in authority don’t want to discuss. There is a group in every town or city that would love to see local control of airports, but their objective is not to mm airports, but to develop land around airports. They don’t understand that airports serve airplanes and air travelers. And if a Boeing goes down it takes subdivisions and condos and expansions down with it. And people living near airports are always complaining about noise. And Mayor Jack would mun a ailroad to the airport to service and attract Industry. What industries do we want there? Pulp mills? Copper: smelters? :Stcel imills?..These are heavy mogaindustries whose stack emissions will change our unstable October weather lo a fog so thick Jet Rangers won't fly in it, Airporis serve airplanes and air transport. Railroads serve heavy-" industry, not light, Jack. Let's remember that and keep them well separated. You like the bus ride to Rupert, Jack? So what do we have as a bottom line? We have a good airport, run by a government that can’t, bad winter weather and a@ terrible navigation approach in that bad weather. We have a lot of civic of- ficials whe put land development (for land development’s sake) be- fore any thing else, and who want to clutter up the airport site with, junk. There must be 100,000 acres of undeveloped Jand in this valley, so why jeopardize alrport safety with developments on airport prop- erty? yy now you must-be thinking that I know everything. Well, I don’t, but at teast T understand the questions. 7 Les Watmough, Terrace, B.C. - Day care re tacts disputed: ce You eluded in your June 29° letter that we broke’ the law by build- _ing our daycare for 16 children on’ ‘Hamer Ave.. where only, clght children are allowed. Wrong! We took out a permit for construction allowing us s eight We built it according to the plans we handed in tocity hall, There is no law that:says we could not add a heat recovery ventilating system or any of the other upgrades we added. We even had Royce Condie Architects look over our plans and help us up- grade the daycare part to equal thet of an A2 - ~ occupancy Game a3 a school), all permitted in R1 zones. If we broke the law in doing this, then why did the city give ug the permit? As far back as April 5, 1993, we approached city council with our proposal and we told: council that if the by-law: did not change we would adhere to the rule of eight. When we lost the bid for 16 we asked only for a couple of. wrecks grace so we would not have to bounce children around -to strange caregivers until our Sparks Daycare could be brought up to code, Paul Gipps, the city’s chief licensing officer, said he had no prob- _ Iém with that, and besides there has been another daycare ‘operating in Ri for two years with more than cight children. Yet the city never shut them down, or took away their licence. Statements were made by city council members that they did not sce anything wrong with giving us 1-6 months leeway. It wasn’t un- til neighbours hounded city hall for the sake. of oxtra children that they shut us down temporarily. . You also make the statements that you do not appreciate city council being slammed for keeping the law. Did you know that city hall had-already broken its own by-laws by handing out home’ occupation business ‘licences: to almost 100 residents in Ri zones? ‘The only businesses that are allowed in R1 are daycares. Many people buy property and try to have things changed. We saw a need in Ri zones for our type of daycare, We took our proposal to all the childcare professionals, health of- fictals, etc. Everybody said it was a model idea for our community. Our only crime was in thinking that everybody thought the same as we did. So please, in the future, find out all the delails before spreading un-truths. And as for Nancy standing up. for Discovery Daycare, if we had done something wrong I’m sure she would not have condoned it, . We believe she was only standing up for children’s rights to grow ” in every neighbourhood, ‘Sharon and Mickey Bromiley, _ Discovery Daycare 1