Frontier Farwest Lodge

Threats to Steelhead of the Skeena Watershed
A 1996 study of all anadromous or ocean-going fish stocks in British Columbia and Yukon documented that 142 separate stocks or runs have already gone extinct out of a total of 9,662.  In the United States, which has endured far more human impacts to Steelhead and salmon rivers and their watersheds, have lost over 400 indigenous stocks (29%) of the 1400 that originally existed.  The majority of remaining native salmon and steelhead runs are endangered or highly threatened with vanishing forever.

Steelhead are the anadromous form of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss that are native to the western coast of North America from southern California to Bristol Bay, Alaska.  As anadromous fish, steelhead are born in the freshwaters and migrate to the ocean to feed for several years, and return like their cousins the Pacific Salmon to spawn in their natal rivers and streams. 

What makes the rivers of the Skeena like the Bulkley and Morice Rivers so unique in part is their rich macroinvertebrate life, driven by the nutrient-rich geology and intact ecosystem of the larger watershed.  Most steelhead spend 1-2 years in freshwater maturing into smolts.  However, in the Skeena, juvenile steelhead spend 2-3 years living in the rivers feeding on their relatively abundant macroinvertebrate insect life, then make a quick several week journey downstream into the Skeena estuary and the Pacific Ocean.  They spend 2–3 years in the ocean, and then return t