First Nation fights to save Henderson Lake hatchery

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The Uchucklesaht First Nation, located on the northern edge of Barkley Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, held an important meeting in early March with various government and corporate officials in an effort to save their Henderson Lake sockeye and chinook salmon stocks.

This was the third annual meeting of the parties with an interest in the Henderson Watershed, hosted by the Uchucklesaht First Nation in an effort to promote conservation and recovery of the stocks.

Since the Uchucklesaht hatchery is a key piece in the efforts to save the stocks, much of the discussion revolved around the hatchery.

The highly-successful sockeye hatchery is almost completely funded by the Uchucklesaht First Nation. Despite the fact that Uchucklesaht has less than 160 registered members, and harvests less than three per cent of the sockeye it produces, the First Nation continues to spend more than $150,000 a year on the project.

"Uchucklesaht puts all the money into a project that everyone benefits from," said Uchucklesaht Chief Councillor Charlie Cootes. "We want that to change, and enter into cost sharing arrangements with all of the other sectors that benefit from the Henderson Lake Hatchery. We can't continue throwing $150,000 into that hatchery, so we're here looking for solutions."

Representatives from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, forest and fishing industries, Habitat Conservation Trust Fund, Regional Aquatic Management Society, Ministry of Forests, and the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council discussed the need to work together on the Henderson Lake project, and develop a cost-sharing arrangement to save the hatchery.

"We're fighting for our lives here," hatchery employee Bruce Hepburn told those in attendance at the meeting. "As of the end of this month, we're out of money. So we're asking for your feedback, advice, and financial support."

After a morning of reports, presentations and pleas, Uchucklesaht Special Projects Coordinator Pat Deakin opened the floor to a roundtable discussion on the fate of the Henderson Lake stocks.

"We need to move into a broad discussion drawing upon the brain power gathered in this room," said Deakin.

With successful sockeye rearing results now in its back-pocket, the hatchery has expanded into chinook salmon enhancement in an effort to bring the king of salmon back to Henderson Lake.

Declared extinct in 1998 after three consecutive years of no chinook returns to the once rich Henderson River, broodstock was donated from the Lower Kennedy River by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, and incubated at the Henderson Lake Hatchery in preparation for their June release.

This spring will see the release of 100,000 chinook fry into the Henderson system, along with more than 1.5 million sockeye fry.

Also at the Somass Hall meeting was a team of freelance journalists working on a documentary television program tentatively titled A Year in the Life of Henderson Lake Hatchery.

"The Henderson Lake Hatchery is a microcosm of what's happening with fisheries issues up and down B.C.'s coast," said George Orr, a journalism instructor at British Columbia Institute of Technology, and host of Studio B.C., a current events program seen on the Knowledge Network.

This is the second incarnation of the Henderson Lake Hatchery. The original hatchery was owned and operated by the federal government from 1909 to 1935. The current hatchery was opened by the Uchucklesaht First Nation in 1993.

It is one of only two sockeye hatcheries in British Columbia and the only such hatchery owned and operated by a First Nation.

Although it contributes to increased recreational and commercial catches of sockeye salmon in Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet, the future of the Henderson Lake Hatchery is in jeopardy and the Uchucklesaht First Nation has made it clear it cannot afford to bear the financial burden of a hatchery that puts money into everyone's pocket but their own. The time has come for others to share the costs o a project they have shared the free benefits of for the past few years.

Although delegates at the meeting felt as if headway had been made in understanding the plight of the Uchucklesaht First Nation and the Henderson Lake Hatchery, the conference does not have much time to produce financial support if the valuable hatchery is to be saved. Innovative solutions are needed to enable the resource to become self-sufficient.

DFO projections are that only 5000 to 10,000 sockeye will return to Henderson Lake this year.

Most scientists believe that all of those sockeye were produced by the hatchery since flood events wiped out the entire natural spawn in 1995.

Many participants thought DFO stock allocation policies were the primary problems faced by the Uchucklesaht. A variety of suggestions for addressing the need for changes in allocation policies were put forward.

The Uchucklesaht will be asking DFO to protect the Henderson sockeye and chinook from the commercial and sport fisheries for the next few years, to give the stocks a chance to rebuild.