High water in Fraser River slows salmon migration in B.C.

Officials with Fisheries and Oceans Canada say extremely high water levels in the Fraser River mean salmon are travelling slowly on their journey to spawning grounds upstream, adding another obstacle to their already precarious return.

Gwil Roberts is the director of the department's response to a landslide discovered north of Lillooet, B.C., last summer that sent 85,000 cubic metres of rock crashing into the river.

He says high water levels have delayed the arrival of salmon at the site of the landslide, where several systems are in place to ensure fish make it past the five-metre waterfall it created.

Roberts says the volume of water in the Fraser River at Hope, B.C., which is downstream of the slide, was recently measured at about 62 per cent above average.

As a result, Roberts says very few salmon have arrived at the slide, while crews have been forced to relocate some of the equipment to ensure fish passage, though everything remains operational.

Michael Crowe, manager of biological programs for the landslide response, says the salmon are using up their energy reserves and heavy sediment in the river can also damage their gills.