Department Head: Sharolise Baker, Fisheries Program Manager
Sharolise Baker was hired in 2005 as the permanent full-time Fisheries Program Manager and brings to the program 19 years of natural resource related positions.
- Fisheries Field Technician for Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council and Fisheries and Oceans Canada Stock Assessment. Work involved stream surveys and stock assessment for Chinook, Sockeye, Rainbow Trout and Kokanee
- Forestry Technician for Lheidli T’enneh First Nation. Survey work and mapping for the silviculture department (traversing, running strip lines etc)
- Stewardship Coordinator for Fisheries Renewal BC, Habitat Conservation & Stewardship Program and Carrier Sekani Tribal Council. Worked with various stakeholder groups in the Upper Fraser River. As well, Program Officer for the Fisheries Renewal Group (Upper Fraser Nechako Fisheries Council) project-funding program.
- Over the years worked with various consultant groups in the upper Fraser River as a Fisheries Field Technician.
SFN Fisheries goals for the program are:
- Increse community responsibility for watershed management;
- Increase local watershed surveillance and monitoring;
- Increase the number of qualified fisheries technicians within the delivery area;
- Increase stakeholder and public awareness of fish and fish habitat requirements;
- Increase fisheries projects within the core territory of Stellat’en First Nation
- Encourage youth to seek further education and training that will increase their employability in the natural resource sector.
- Identify individual needs of participants such as education level, training, work experience and career planning.
Fishery Programs
The Stellat’en First Nation Fisheries Program carries out two projects the Stellat’en Fish Fence Operation and Catch Monitoring on the west end of Fraser Lake. The fish fence operations consisted of construction, maintenance, and enumeration of Adult Stellat’en Sockeye Salmon.
Stellako Adult Sockeye Enumeration Program
Stellat’en Fisheries senior staff, Stellat’en Fisheries Field Technician Trainees and DFO staff worked together to enumerate sockeye salmon spawners returning to the Stellako River. We worked together to construct the fish fence, the fish fence was maintained 24hrs a day and had 2-3 people per shift.
The fish were also enumerated by visual counts by doing floats. The Bio sampling, mark/recapture and dead pitches were carried out by DFO stock assessment staff and Stellat’en Fisheries Field staff. Visual sockeye counts on Nithi River and Ormand Creek also took place by Stellat’en Fisheries Field Technician and DFO Stock Assessment staff.
Daily data collected by Fisheries Field Technicians were on DFO data forms and SFN fish fence journal; they included data such as;
- Date, time, weather, water gauge and water temperature (each shift had the responsibility of recording this data).
- Numbers of fish through fence on an hourly basis (Sockeye Chinook).
- Record of other fish species (trout, Kokanee and suckers etc)
- Food fish numbers (male/female sockeye numbers).
- Number of visitors at the fish fence was recorded on a per shift basis (DFO, school groups, community members.
- Notes on fish fence maintenance (cleaning, sandbagging or a record of any breaches).
- Record of any tagged sockeye observed moving through fence.
SFN Catch Monitoring
The sockeye food fishery activities carried out by the Stellat’en Field Technicians. The sockeye was dip netted off of the fish fence. This is how traditionally how Carrier First Nations fished for their salmon. The Stellat’en Field Technicians caught and recorded number of fish, sex of the fish, and kept a list of community members who received fish on a daily basis. As well, there was a record kept on who was setting net on the west end of Fraser Lake.
Future Projects/Programs
- Ecotourism (rafting and hiking tours)
- Environmental monitoring
- Referral tracking and monitoring
- Creel surveys