West Babine Sustainable Resource Management Plan

The Babine River is considered Classified Waters in order to maintain opportunities for “any
class of angler to participate in a fishery in a relatively unspoiled, uncrowded environment” (BC
Fisheries, 2002). The classified waters system was established to recognize high quality trout
rivers in BC, in particular steelhead rivers, and to maintain angling opportunities for resident
anglers in those waters. The classification prescribes the level of angling use and guiding activity
and allocates use between classes of anglers (BC residents, other Canadians, non-Canadians).
Class 1 rivers are premier waters where the level of guided use is restricted.
Summer-run steelhead populations travel up the Skeena during the summer months and arrive in
the Babine system in late summer and fall to spawn. The principle spawning ground for
steelhead is outside of the plan area and runs from the counting fence to Nilkitkwa lake. The
largest concentration of steelhead occurs just below the outlet of Babine Lake (GTOWPG,
2002). Within the plan area, steelhead spawning has been documented in the Hanawald and
Shelagyote Creeks, and in the headwaters of the Nichyeskwa Creek (Gottesfeld et al, 2002).
Sports fishing also occurs on the lower Shelagyote River and on some of the lakes in the West
Babine. Other sport fish include Chinook, Sockeye, Coho, bull trout, Dolly Varden char, lake
trout, and rainbow trout. Within the plan area, bull trout primarily occur in the Shelagyote River
and its tributaries.
The Babine-Nilkitkwa lake system supports the largest sockeye salmon population in Canada
(GTOWPG, 2002). The Babine population has accounted for 75 – 95 per cent of the Skeena
sockeye production, averaging more than 3.8 million adult fish annually since 1990 (DFO,
1999). Much of this high productivity can be attributed to artificial channels in the Fulton River
and Pinkut Creek, outside of the plan area, which typically account for more than 70 per cent of
smolt production from the Babine-Nilkitkwa lake system.
The Babine chinook are one of the most important of the Skeena chinook populations
(GTOWPG, 2002). The West Babine provides rearing and migration habitat for most of the
Chinook populations in the Babine drainage, with documented spawning runs on the Shelagyote
River and Nichyeskwa Creek (DeGisi, 2000 as cited in GTOWPG, 2002). Pink runs represent
approximately 4% of the total Skeena watershed escapement (Gottesfeld et al. 2002) and Chum
are present but are not abundant. Babine coho stocks are currently depressed in abundance and of
high conservation concern (GTOWPG, 2002). Coho do not spawn in the plan area.
The Babine fishery is of very high importance to the Gitxsan and Lake Babine Nation.
Traditionally, the fishery provided food, trade goods, as well as cultural expression and
connection to ancestral practices (GTOWPG, 2002). The Gitxsan salmon fishery at Kisgegas
Canyon is thought to have been the largest traditional aboriginal fishery in the Skeena watershed
(GTOWPG, 2002), while the major Lake Babine Nation fishery occurred outside of the plan
area, around Nilkitkwa Lake.
Fishing continues to be an integral cultural practice and sustenance activity for the Gitxsan and
Lake Babine Nation. Salmon is a fundamental food source and the sockeye run is, and has been,
particularly important to the First Nations. Fort Babine Enterprises operates an Excess Salmon to
Spawning Requirement (ESSR) fishery targeting sockeye jacks harvested from the Babine at the
counting fence outside of the plan area, primarily by dip-netting (Gottesfeld et al, 2002). In
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