Monday December 1, 2025
Castanet —
Zero fish were detected during the steelhead migration window for the first time since records started being kept in the 1970s, according to the BC Wildlife Federation, which says governments continue to ignore warnings and recommendations.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Interior Fraser Test Fishery at Albion did not detect a single Interior Fraser steelhead during the test fishing period this season, according to a press release from the BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF).
The BCWF said the results are unprecedented, but not completely unexpected,.
Returns over the past decade have ranged from a few dozen fish to a few hundred, but never zero, though there have been warnings of impending disaster along the way, the release stated.
According to the BCWF, increasing marine mammal populations are driving steelhead survival rates to critical lows, but the province has ignored evidence that seals and sea lions are having a devastating effect and ignored a recommendation to curtail their populations.
The Fraser River late-run summer steelhead is a group of 10 discrete spawning stocks, four of which return to the Thompson River, two to the Chilcotin Watershed and four in tributaries of the Fraser.
The BCWF said 2018 and 2020 threat assessments by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) determined the Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead populations were at imminent risk of extinction, but the federal government has repeatedly rejected adding these populations to an endangered wildlife list under the Species at Risk Act.
“A listing would compel the government to take immediate action to protect these populations, including reducing bycatch from non-selective fisheries,” B.C. Wildlife Federation Executive Director Jesse Zeman said.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation has been calling for an emergency listing for the Thompson and Chilcotin steelhead since 2018.
Zeman added that, according to the provincial government’s fall status update on the Fraser River late-run summer steelhead, the escapement forecast for the Chilcotin Watershed is for fewer than nine spawners. The spawning population for the Thompson Watershed is fewer than 19 fish.
“This is the definition of an emergency,” said Zeman. “One hiccup like a slide or a storm could wipe out one or more of these spawning populations forever.”
The BCWF supports a variety of hatchery program methodologies that could be applied to the specific issues facing steelhead populations in the Thompson and Chilcotin River systems, and advises that selective fishing techniques are also needed to help restore the population.
“We’ve said for years that the provincial and federal governments are managing these fish to zero, and here we are, at zero,” Zeman said.
If any migrating steelhead did make it past Hells Gate to the Thompson and Chilcotin Watersheds this fall, they will overwinter there and finish their migration and spawn in the spring, Zeman said in the release.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation is a leading conservation organization, and a province-wide member-driven charitable organization, with more than 43,000 members and more than 100 member clubs.