Perhaps Kintama’s most important contribution to BC salmon conservation, is our Cultus Lake sockeye work on this COSEWIC listed stock; see Applications page for more detail. Our work shows their outmigration pathways, speed of movement, and – most importantly – mortality rates. The first animation shows smolt migrations over 4 years of study; the second animation shows the smolt outmigration in 2007 and the return as adults 2 years later using specially programmed tags. Survival matched the overall Cultus run and we successfully recorded both the outbound and inbound migration of the two survivors (red dots)—a world first!
Click on the box in the lower right corner for the full-screen animation
Cultus Lake Sockeye (2004 -2007)
Cultus Lake Sockeye (2007 Smolt Outmigration -2009 Adult Return)