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2018 Syilx Fishery Notice

July 11th, 2018

The purpose of this Bulletin is to provide you an update on the 2018 Okanagan sockeye harvest year.

Flows are at 65 cms, about 4 times what is usual. For people currently fishing at the nʕaylintn (McIntyre Dam) and sx̌ʷəx̌ʷnitkʷ (OK Falls) please be careful. We do not recommend people going into the water.

  • The returns are on the higher end of the forecast
  • As of July 9, 2018, about 182,458 Sockeye have entered the Columbia River. It is estimated that 75-85% of the return is Okanagan. We are anticipating there will be 210,000 sockeye returning in total with 155,000-180,000 sockeye heading to the Okanagan
  • As of July 8, 2018, about 68,609 sockeye have migrated over Wells Dam. We estimate 100,000 to 130,000 will migrate over Wells dam in total.
  • People are currently fishing at sx̌ʷəx̌ʷnitkʷ (s-wuh-wuneet-kw) and nʕaylintn (Ny-lin-tn) since the beginning of July and river temperatures haven’t increased where the sockeye have not fallen back into Osoyoos Lake

For all Okanagan Nation members, if food fishing, please have status card available as DFO enforcement will be out periodically making sure it is only the ONA Members fishing right now.