October, 1964

October, 1964 EPARTMENT OF FISHERIES OF CANADA•OTTAWA PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES OF CANADA CON TEN TS VOL 17 NO. 4 FEATURES The Chilcotin River Slide 3 Canadian Whaling Venture 5 Canadian Summer Fisheries 1964 9 CANADIAN FISHERIES NEWS Mactaquac Salmon Project 8 Pacific Salmon Tagging 13 INPFC Meeting in Ottawa 14 A.D. Wymbs Retires 15 Canadian Aid (Africa) 15 FISHERIES NEWS FROM ABROAD I Norway: Export Table, Jan. -June 18 produi CURRENT READING 19 COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Pacific coast fishermen hoist afters their salmon purse seine net aboard off San Juan, British Britis Columbia. from one of Frass river thousi The contents of TRADE NEWS are Crown Copyrighted but may be reprinted in other publications. Refers up the to the source, however, would be appreciated. For further information with regard to TRADE NEWS v, to the Director of the Information and Consumer Service, Department of Fisheries, Ottawa, Can, The scene after nine million cubic yards of earth had shifted on the river bank. Ike ektithottit Rita Slide By BRUCE WOODLAND EWFOUNDLANDERS have coined the perfect This was the setting for a disaster of major N phrase to depict a situation where trouble proportions. produces its own antidote. "It's a good job", they say, "out of a bad one." Sometime during the evening of August 19 -- no-one saw it happen-- an immense wedge of sloping This concisely -- and precisely -- sums up the river bank shifted, then thundered down and across aftermath of a massive landslide that spilled into the Chilcotin River. An e s timate d nine million British Columbia's Chilcotin River in late August. cubic yards of earth - enough to fill 2,000,000 standard dump trucks - were moved in the slide. It The Chilcotin River is the salmon's highway stretched a third of a mile along the river, extended from the Fraser River mainstem to the Chilko River, 1250 feet back and to a height of 600 feet. one of the major sockeye producing streams of the Fraser system. A 70-foot high wall of earth spewed across the Chilcotin forming a dam that created a lake three A landslide at any time spells trouble in a miles long holding 650 million gallons of water. river, but this slide occurred jus t as hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon were starting to move The dam held firm until water spilled over the ns. Refer€ up the Chilcotin River. crest and began the corrective process of erosion. E NEWS awa, Cane - 3 - Another view of the area showing the extent of the landslide. At a rate of a foot a day, the river cut through Careful checks a long the stream and down- the mass of earth, carving anew channel running stream from the slide failed to produce evidence of in a sweeping curve that is at one point 200 feet fish mortality. The slide had delayed the salmon by from its original path. The stream carried away several days but the damage had not been great. two million cubic yards of sand and gravel creating a silt flow that could be traced as far downstream as Also encouraging were indications that an New Westminster, nearly 300 miles away. abundance of spawners of an important chinook salmon run had already moved upstream. This was Meanwhile, the hordes of Chilko sockeye ar- borne out by excellent chinook catches by Indians riving at the Chilcotin caused great concern. Biol- in Farwell Canyon previous to the slide. ogists, engineers and fisheries administrators of the Department of Fisheries of Canada and the Inter- By early September, on-the-spot obser- national Salmon Fisheries Commission sped to the vations revealed that thou sands of sockeye were scene to study the effects of the monstrous slide. moving through the slide area each hour. Later in the month, 250,000 or more fish had reached the Frequent in spec ti on s of the heavily- silted spawning grounds. They appe a r e d to be in good Chilcotin in the week after the slide failed to locate condition, although scientists noted a high percent- the main body of the Chilko sockeye run. Adding age showed scarred noses. A detailed examination to the concern was the discovery of Chilko sockeye - is to be made of the success of the spawning and all identified through scale analysis - in the Indian aspects of the physical condition of the sockeye will fishery catches at Chimney Creek 23 miles up the be Investigated by a specially assigned (earn of Fraser River from the confluence of the Fraser and experts. Chilcotin. Extensive surveys are also underway to SALMON NEGOTIATE AREA determine causes and effects of the slide and possi- ble future developments. No major difficulties are It was not until August 29 that the fish were anticipated in the slide area but s mall slides still sighted - but it was a reassuring scene that gree- occur and the erosion of the newly-created river ted Department of Fisheries and Salmon Commission banks continues. biologists who were making a survey of the Chilco- tin by helicopter. The salmon were observed mo- Only Nature could have provided the remedy ving through the slide area, apparently without trou- to this massive landslide in time to save the import- ble, and the front of the migration run had reached ant Chilko run. That it was saved was indeed "a a point roughly seven miles above the slide area. good job out of a bad one" ! te - 4 - Harpoon gun in the bow of the "Haroyfjord". Crewmen wait for action. down- lence of Canadian Whaling Venture lmon by eat. that an By G.J. GILLESPIE chinook his was Oh, the rare old whale, mid storm and gale, OMEHOW, the verse from that old Nantucket Indians S whaling song I read somewhere a long time In his ocean home will be ago kept edging into my thoughts as I stood on the bridge of the Norwegian whaling vessel "Haroyfjord", obser- A giant in might, where might is right outward bound from New Harbor, Lunenburg Coun- re were ty, N„ S. , to the whale-hunting grounds. dater in And King of the boundless sea led the in good !rcent- ination and all ye will am of ay to pos si- es are 3 still river medy port- ed "a Whale shown just after being harpooned from the "Haroyfjord". - 5 - We were on a hunt for the giant finback whale, ner Huse's gun was loaded with its five-foot harpoon like a a leviathan measuring up to 70 feet and weighing 40 and its attached nylon line, 40 fathoms long. death. tons or more. Since the seas on ' s hunt had com- menced earlier in the past summer, the "Haroyfjord" Watching the sea with eyes used to looking had been singularly successful. During good weath- distances, Captain Huse took time to observe that it kille r er, the vessel had killed up to four whales in seven was easier to judge the course of a whale in deeper a shor days, and that within Nova Scotia coastal waters water. The monsters swam a straighter course in tleno s( only a few miles offshore. deep water, said the skipper, explaining that in the whale relatively shallow water in which we were then eats sl While the element of luck was present, there sailing, the movements of the whale became more arounc is more to successful who ling than that. Take it unpredictable. and re from Capt. Torodd Huse, the handsome 31-year-old They a Viking who is master of the 100-foot vessel. "I Nine or ten more sec onds went by. This summ have been hunting whales for about 17 years and it's time the fountain of vapour was closer to the ship. always a gamble. The weather has to be almost On the bow the gunner was tense behind his gun, and ideal to spot whales and once you spot one there's no in the crowsnest the lookout was joined by another to tray guarantee you're going to get him." crewman and two pairs of eyes were now scanning noses the sea from the high vantage point. had se CO -OPERATION GIVEN small( It was another five minutes before the whale The whaling experiment -- and it can be called was seen again. This time it was within striking that -- is being conducted by the Norwegian ship distance. But Gunner Huse did not fire. The cap- through the co-operation of both the Department of tain quickly explained. It was a finback all right, Fisheries of Canada and the Nova Scotia Department but it was a mother whale with its calf along as of Fisheries. The Canadian Government gave per- company. Such a killing is prohibited by inter- whale mission to the Norwegian vessel to hunt whales out national whaling regulations and, besides, as Cap- the w of Nova Scotia and land them there. Money was also tain Huse said, "After you have hunted whales for out of provided through the federal department of fisheries a long time you gain a r e s p e c t for these animals welco: to provide ob servers aboard the whaler to watch and you like to do the sporting thing." And so the an urn operations and record necessary data. "Haroyfjord" sailed on to keep another rendezvous brella somewhere in the sprawling w a s t e of sea spread Huse. Brian Meagher, Deputy Minister of Fisheries before us. red rr for Nova Scotia, has been encouraged by results so is par far.

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