Fisheries Centre Research Reports 2010 Volume 18 Number 2

ISSN 1198-6727 Fisheries Centre Research Reports 2010 Volume 18 Number 2 EULACHON (THALEICHTHYS PACIFICUS ): PAST AND PRESENT Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada EULACHON (THALEICHTHYS PACIFICUS): PAST AND PRESENT by Megan Felicity Moody and Tony J. Pitcher Fisheries Centre Research Reports 18(2) 197 pages © published 2010 by The Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia 2202 Main Mall Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4 ISSN 1198-6727 Fisheries Centre Research Reports 18 (2) 2010 EULACHON (THALEICHTHYS PACIFICUS ): PAST AND PRESENT by Megan Felicity Moody and Tony J. Pitcher CONTENTS Director’s foreword............................................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................3 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................4 A review of historical eulachon fisheries.............................................................................................................9 Estimating historical catches of the Nuxalk Nation eulachon fishery............................................................ 42 Reconstructing abundance of eulachon throughout its geographic range using a fuzzy expert system ...... 63 Assessing the impacts on eulachon populations.............................................................................................. 94 Discussion, conclusions and acknowledgments .............................................................................................126 Appendix 1: Sources of eulachon catch, CPUE, fishing effort and run strength for the Nass River............129 Appendix 2: Copy of the UBC Research Ethics Board Certificate of Approval ............................................. 131 Appendix 3: Letter sent to Nuxalk community members requesting participation in 2006 interviews.....132 Appendix 4: Consent forms signed by Nuxalk community participants for the 2006 Nuxalk interviews..133 Appendix 5: N6 categories used to organize 2006 Nuxalk interview data....................................................135 Appendix 6: Results from the eulachon grease model including original data ............................................138 Appendix 7: Sources of data collected from each eulachon system...............................................................139 Appendix 8: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code for the fuzzy expert system used to estimate 15 eulachon systems’ annual abundance status ...............................................................................................144 Appendix 9: Results from correlation analysis ..............................................................................................180 A Research Report from the Fisheries Centre at UBC Fisheries Centre Research Reports 18(2) 197 pages © Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, 2010 FISHERIES CENTRE RESEARCH REPORTS ARE ABSTRACTED IN THE FAO AQUATIC SCIENCES AND FISHERIES ABSTRACTS (ASFA) ISSN 1198-6727 Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus ): past and present, Moody and Pitcher 1 DIRECTOR ’S FOREWORD I am particularly pleased to present this Fisheries Centre Research Report (FCRR) titled “Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus ): past and present”, which is based on the Master’s thesis of the first author, submitted and successfully defended in 2008. This FCRR, besides making clear the precarious state of eulachon throughout much of its geographic range, also documents its importance for and uses by the First Nations of the central coast of British Columbia – a task which no other but Ms Megan Moody, herself a member of the Nuxalk First Nation, of the Central Coast of British Columbia, could have written about so credibly. Indeed, this more than anything illustrates the importance for the Fisheries Centre and other units of UBC having students from First Nations building on their own experience and knowledge. Beside its obvious merits as a thorough account of the biology of eulachon, this credibility is a major reason why we publish this thesis as a FCRR, pending the submission of its various chapters to scientific journals. I take this opportunity to thank on my behalf and that of Ms. Moody, Dr. T.J. Pitcher, co-author and supervisor of her thesis, Dr. W.W.L. Cheung, for his assistance with the fuzzy logic part of her analysis, Dr. D. Pauly for his suggestion to publish this report, and for editing it, and the many other persons who have assisted in the creation and publication of this document. Ussif Rashid Sumaila, Director UBC Fisheries Centre May 2010 2 Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus ): past and present, Moody and Pitcher ABSTRACT The biology of eulachon ( Thaleichthys pacificus ), a small anadromous smelt (Family Osmeridae) found only along the Northwest Pacific Coast, is poorly understood. Many spawning populations have suffered declines but as their historic status is relatively unknown and the fisheries poorly documented, it is difficult to identify the contributing factors. This study provides a survey of eulachon fisheries throughout its geographical range and three analyses aimed at improving our understanding of past and present fisheries, coast-wide abundance status, and the factors which may be impacting these populations. An in-depth view of the Nuxalk Nation eulachon fishery on the Bella Coola River, Central Coast, BC, is provided. The majority of catches were used for making eulachon grease, a food item produced by First Nations by fermenting, then cooking the fish to release the grease. Catch statistics were kept yearly from 1945-1989, but have rarely been recorded since. Using traditional and local ecological knowledge, catches were reconstructed based on estimated annual grease production. Run size trends were also created using local Fisheries Officers and Nuxalk interview comments. A fuzzy logic expert system was designed to estimate the relative abundance of fifteen eulachon systems. The expert system uses catch data to determine the exploitation status of a fishery and combines it with other data sources (e.g., CPUE) to estimate an abundance status index. The number of sources depended on the existing data and varied from one to eight. Using designed heuristic rules and by adjusting weighting parameters a final index was produced. Results suggest that there have been recent and extended declines in several eulachon rivers particularly the Klamath, California; Bella Coola, BC; Wannock, BC; and Kitimat, BC. Seven of the fifteen abundance time-series were used to evaluate the potential relationships between the declines and some of the factors that impact eulachon. Results suggest increases in shrimp and hake catches, seal and sea lion abundance, and the increase in sea surface temperatures were weakly associated with the declines. However, contrary to expectations, adult hake biomass showed a positive association with four eulachon relative abundance time-series, suggesting that common environmental factors influenced both species. Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus ): past and present, Moody and Pitcher 3 INTRODUCTION The eulachon, Thaleichthys pacificus 1 (Richardson, 1863), a small anadromous smelt (Family Osmeridae), is found only along the North American Pacific Coast from northern California to the southern Bering Sea. It is commonly recognized as the ooligan, eulachon, hooligan, olachen, olachon, oolachan, oolichan, and oulachan. The origin of its name was originally derived from the Chinook Indian trade language. However, each First Nation group possesses a different word for the fish specific to their own language. It has also been termed the ‘candlefish’, as its high oil content allows it to burn like a candle when dried (Swan, 1880) and the ‘salvation’ fish, as it historically arrived when First Nations people were starving or low on winter food supplies, “should the run of oolachans fail, hundreds of Indians literally die of starvation” (Bland, n.d.). The eulachon was first recorded in British Columbia (BC) waters in 1866, after specimens were collected near Vancouver Island (Clemens and Wilby, 1961). In this paper the fish will be referred to as ‘eulachon’ as this is the most common spelling in today’s literature. Background Biology Eulachon return to most rivers in the early spring to spawn. In BC, they return in peak abundance to the Nass, the Kemano and the Bella Coola Rivers during March and to the more southern BC runs, the Fraser, the Kingcome and Klinaklini Rivers in April. Maps of all river locations are shown in “A review of historical eulachon fisheries”. The more southern Columbia River, Washington/Oregon run peaks in abundance during February (Washington & Oregon Departments of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW & ODFW, 2005]) several months earlier than the runs in Alaska. In Southeastern Alaska eulachon can spawn as early as April whereas in the Central and Western Alaskan rivers they can return as early as May (Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 2007). The one common aspect of these rivers is that they have a spring freshet that is typical of glacial rivers (Hay and McCarter, 2000). Mature eulachon are dark blue-grey with black speckling and a silvery white underbelly. They range in size from 135 to 151 mm (total length) in the offshore waters of California (Odemar, 1964);

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