Nearing the end of salmon counting season

 

A sockeye salmon being released following sampling

As we near the end of October, the Haida Fishery Program's sonar program on the Yakoun River is winding down, wrapping up what has been one of the most successful seasons yet. Without major flooding this fall, the sonar was able to operate continuously from the end of May to the end of October, likely capturing over 95% of the salmon migration season, and filling in major gaps in our knowledge of coho salmon, Chinook, and sockeye abundance. It was also a pink salmon year on the Yakoun (they only return in even years), so the technicians on the project have been very busy keeping up with the weekly data review in order to provide updates to community fishers. As they wrap up the manual counting process, their attention will turn back to computer vision annotations, which can enable automated counting starting in 2023. Automation will save HFP technicians hundreds of hours of data review and provide more timely updates to the Nation's fishery managers.