Water and Fisheries
Department Update
from Isaiah Reynolds, Fisheries Manager
Isaiah is Actively involved in Fisheries collaborative projects including:
- Micro hatchery project aimed at enhancing Endangered salmon runs – feasibility stage has just been completed.
- Working with UNBC on studying the effects of climate change and warming water temperatures on the Stellako River Rainbow trout deploying water temp stations and telemetry stations to track water temperature changes throughout the year and track fish movement and habitat use in the rivers.
- Tracking fish population sizes for this year’s upcoming Stellako and Nadina sockeye salmon runs working with nation members counting returning spawning fish with sonar technology to determine if there is an opportunity for a good fishery for Stellat’en this year without putting the Stellako and Nadina River runs at risk.
- Mapping Stellako River and Endako River for restoration of riverbanks and riparian zones along each river.
- Planning for food fishery for the upcoming Stellako river sockeye run due to numbers of returns looking good this year compared to the last couple of years.
- Planning fisheries related training courses for staff and band members.
- Endako Chinook Brood fence program management
Recap from 2025
Endako Chinook Brood Fence Program
The Endako River is facing multiple issues, and we are seeing the effects of those issues on the Endako river endangered chinook population. One of the major issues we are facing is drought and loss of habitat due to the water level in the Endako river being too low in some areas for fish passage. This is causing difficulties for returning chinook migrating to spawn. In partnership with the UFFCA (upper Fraser fisheries conservation alliance), DFO ( department of fisheries and oceans) and CSTC (carrier Sekani tribal council).
Stellat’en helps with management of a brood fence on the Endako river where the some of the last surviving chinook are captured and transported via truck to a support hatchery in Quesnel where they help care for the fish until they are ready to spawn. In the hatchery they collect milt and eggs from the chinook and care for the eggs until they hatch and then they are raised to the fry stage where they are later released back to the Endako river in the Spring. This last year we caught and transported a total of 9 chinook (3 females, 6 males). Programs like these are important for the survival of endangered salmon.
Here are some images from last year’s brood fence program.
Here are the return numbers for sockeye and chinook that returned to spawn last year.
| Stellako | 250,219 |
| Nadina | 44,570 |
| Nithi | 0 |
| Endako | 9 |
Stellako Select Update
We had an amazing opportunity to partner with authentic indigenous seafood and UFISH to operate an in land Commercial Fishery all thanks to the healthy number of returning Stellako river sockeye. This fishery took place for a week last summer and had involvement from multiple fishing crews and including some of our own band members. This fishery used a purse seine net boat to catch holding sockeye at the mouth of the Stellako river where it meets Fraser Lake. We caught over 10,000 pounds of sockeye for market and the community in this fishery. We are aiming for an early summer release for the canned sockeye and candied sockeye jerky products. More updates will be announced soon.
Some images taken during the Stellako select fishery last summer.
Community Food Fishery Recap
This last summer the fisheries department helped catch sockeye for the community prioritizing elders and low-income members with jars and bags of smoked salmon. All together the fishing crew caught over 1,500 sockeye for the community. This program took a lot of effort to complete by our fishing crew and smokehouse crew. Big thanks to Katie and Eileen for helping with the processing of the salmon and keeping the community smokehouse house going and helping to teach the younger generation with prepping of the salmon. All around it was a successful program for the community and aiming to build off this program for the upcoming fishing season.
Here are some images taken during the food fishery last year.
What to look forward to this year 2026
This year we are continuing to help manage and assist with the Stellako river and Nadina River sockeye counting fences programs. As they are vital to help with the management of our sockeye salmon and tracking our sockeye salmon populations in our territory. We are continuing to help manage the Endako Chinook brood fence program and spawner surveys as well. We are also looking at a couple of Endako river restoration projects that will be taking place later this year as well to help improve the current state of the river. This year we look forward to continuing our food fish program with some abundant returns projected this year for both Nadina River and Stellako River sockeye.
Projected return numbers for sockeye salmon this year 2026
Note: these numbers are just projections and will change in season due to unpredictable environmental conditions and spawning success for each run.
| Stellako | 339,000 |
| Nadina | 620,000 |