Rebuilding The Sarita River Spring Stock

After years of re-building the Spring Salmon stock on the Sarita River next door to Poett Nook in Barkley Sound, Mother nature decided to wipe out this years returns by deciding to flood the river just as the Spring were building their reds. The river rose over 10 feet in a matter of hours and the weary salmon were washed back to Barkley Sound never to return.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nations along with the DFO at the Nitnat hatchery and in conjunction with Poett Nook Marina and Campground decided to greatly increase the numbers of Spring salmon that are brought to Poett Nook , penned, feed and then released.

Over the past ten years the joint program has been releasing Spring every year in order to rebuild the Sarita river stock. The DFO is extremely happy with the returns and have slowly been increasing the numbers every year. In the past ten years the group has released just over a million Spring Salmon into Barkley Sound. These Spring are now part of the great fishing enjoyed by many people when they return to the inside waters from the middle of July until they finally find the Sarita and head up to spawn,

This year a decision was made based upon the good returns and the disastrous flood to greatly increase the stock released this year. So with that in mind 600,000 plus Springs will be released from Poett Nook by the end of June. This is almost three times the amount ever done before. It is hoped that in addition to having sports fishing available in four years, that the Sarita will continue its build back to the days of former glory.

Release Numbers Per Year:

1997 - 108,000        2002 - 165,000
1998 - 82,000          2003 - 137,569
1999 - 49,000          2004 - 226,000
2000 - 86,500          2005 - 226,000
2001 - 157,500        2007 - 600,000+

Figure 1 - The Huu-ay-aht Fish Pens

Figure 2- The Future Being Stocked