Science Advisory Report 2018/042

Recovery Potential Assessment for the Sakinaw Lake Sockeye Salmon (Onchorhynchus nerka) (2017)

Summary

• Sakinaw Lake Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is the Designatable Unit of anadromous Sockeye Salmon that spawns in Sakinaw Lake.
• Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon was first assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 2002 as an emergency assessment and recommended as Endangered. The status was re-examined and confirmed in May 2003, and in another emergency reassessment status was confirmed in April 2006. As per section 24 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA), COSEWIC reviewed the classification in April 2016 and the status was confirmed as Endangered.
• Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon are now all descendants of re-introduced fish from the captive breeding program.
• COSEWIC included all intra-limital reintroductions as part of the wildlife species being assessed. Therefore, although the captive bred and re-introduced Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon are not considered wild under the Wild Salmon Policy, they are included in the definition of a wildlife species under SARA and therefore included in the Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon population for the purpose of this Recovery Potential Assessment (RPA).
• Numbers of mature Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon spawners varied from 750 to 16,000 over the period from 1947 to 1987 with no apparent trend, after which escapements declined drastically until 2006 when 0 or 1 adult returned to the lake each year from 2006 to 2009. Given that the generation time for Sockeye Salmon is four years, the Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon population was extirpated in the wild. Sockeye Salmon fry from hatchery releases began returning to Sakinaw Lake as adults in 2009.
• Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon marine survival during recent (2005-2016) years averages 0.23% for hatchery and 0.49% for natural origin Sockeye. Current marine survival rates are not sufficient to sustain the population; therefore continued hatchery supplementation is required to prevent another extirpation event until survival in the marine environment improves.
• Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon require different habitats at varying stages of their life cycle. While available spawning habitat is critical to the survival of Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon, it is not currently limiting Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon.
• Pollution, habitat degradation, and fishing were identified as the three main anthropogenic threats to Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon.  Predation, competition, parasitism, and changing ocean conditions were identified as the limiting factors with the highest population level risk.
• Under current marine conditions, the survival of Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon requires human intervention through hatchery supplementation; without the enhancement program the population will likely go extinct.
• Although spawning and rearing habitat is currently not limiting Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon productivity, every measure should be taken to protect and to maintain the quality and quantity of Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon spawning and rearing habitat.
• Given the high early life history stage mortality and the extremely low marine survival of Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon, minimal allowable harm should be permitted at this time, and be reduced below current levels of harm to the extent possible.

This Science Advisory Report is from the April 25-26, 2017 Recovery Potential Assessment - Sakinaw Sockeye Salmon. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.

Complete document (PDF, 503 KB)

Accessibility Notice

This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.