Falls River Project Water Use Plan Falls River Fish ... - BC Hydro

Falls River WUP Monitoring 2008/2009
2 METHODS
2.1 Survey Design
The primary measures of interest for the 3-year Habitat Monitoring Survey will be to investigate:
1) Relative egg-to-fry survival across sample sites over time;
2) The relationship between egg-to-fry survival at sample sites and water flow/discharge; and
3) The relationship between physicochemical parameters at sample sites and water
flow/discharge.
Year 1 will assess only the physicochemical parameters and years 2/3 will assess both
physicochemical parameters and Chinook egg-to-fry survival.
In the present study (Year 1), priorities for survey design include:
1) The selection of study sites; and
2) The measurement of characteristics of incubation habitat (substrate composition and
physicochemical parameters).
Incubation areas that were selected represent a range of physical habitat typical to Chinook spawning
habitat in Falls River. Baseline spawning habitat information (water depth/temperature,
physicochemical parameters, substrate size and composition, discharge) was collected in the tailpond
at the Falls River facility to assess the overall quality of salmon egg/fry incubation habitat and
measure factors that are known to affect egg/fry incubation.
Data collection in the study area was timed to coincide with low tide in order to access the sites
without the use of SCUBA gear.
2.1.1 Incubation area/Site Selection
The selected incubation area locations were based on two site visits conducted prior to the initial
baseline site visit. At the first site meeting, in June of 2008, which included Karla Robison and Brent
Mossep from BC Hydro, Lana Miller from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Esther
Guimond, a consultant on the project, overall site logistics in terms of accessing areas efficiently and
safely were discussed as well as reviewing Lana Miller’s 2003 incubation study. From this meeting it
was decided that three incubation areas would be selected on the right bank, eliminating the need to
ferry equipment across to the left bank, and thus maximizing time spent during the available low tide
window. A second site visit conducted in September of 2008, during which site conditions allowed
for survey work on substrate depth along the right, bank, narrowed the selection to two incubation
areas, both in close proximity to a incubation area used in the 2003/2004 incubation study (Site
#2, see Figure 4). Overall incubation area selection was based on:
Cambria Gordon and Metlakata Fisheries 8