Thousands of wild salmon take a helicopter ride after rock slide

The slide happened in a remote area near Big Bar, northwest of Kamloops, which is east of Vancouver, in late June, cutting chinook salmon off from travelling up the Fraser River to spawn.

The Fraser River is longest river in British Columbia and plays an integral role in the life cycle of wild salmon. The government, conservation groups, First Nations and the aquaculture industry have been working together to develop solutions that can get the salmon past the rock slide and up stream. Officials have warned that if the salmon do not make it past the rock slide the results will be catastrophic.

Holding tanks

The BC Salmon Farmers’ Association (BCSFA) has been collaborating with work crews on building aluminum holding tanks for the fish. The salmon will swim into a custom-made channel through a one-way weir. The fish will then enter holding tanks with oxygenated water. The tanks will be lifted by helicopter, and the fish will be relocated to the other side of the rock slide so they can continue the journey upstream.

The tank sizes range from 780 litres to 2,700 litres.

“Over the past few months our team and members have come together to provide transportation solutions to help salmon trapped by the Big Bar landslide on the Fraser River. We're proud to play our part - working hand-in-hand with government officials, volunteers, and industry leaders,” said a post on the BCSFA’s LinkedIn page.

“Our folks delivered custom-made salmon buckets for helicopters to use in transporting salmon, as well as a pilot oxygenation system to keep salmon healthy during helicopter transport. We're grateful for the hundreds of volunteers and boots on the ground workers that have been leading the effort since day one - we are all salmon people.”

At the start of September it was estimated that 56,000 salmon had been transported past the rock slide.