Documentation of North Coast (Statistical Areas 1 to 6) Salmon Escapement Information

Abstract

This report documents sockeye, coho, pink, chum and Chinook salmon escapement
information held by the North Coast Stock Assessment Unit for streams located in the
North Coast of British Columbia, Statistical Areas 1 to 6. A description of the type, format,
scope and content of these data holdings, as well as information on the procedure for
accessing these data is provided.

Paper records documenting annual salmon spawning ground assessments in the North
Coast, commonly known as BC16 files, may in some cases extend back to the early
1920’s. Electronic scanned images of these files for all years up to 2003 are part of North
Coast Stock Assessment Unit data holdings. Electronic spreadsheet data tables
summarizing annual escapement estimates noted on BC16 reports are organized by
Statistical Area, by Management Subarea, by species, by stream and by year. These data
are available for all years of existing records to present. A review of annual escapement
data has reconciled numeric values between north coast electronic spreadsheet data tables
and regional salmon escapement data (currently known as NuSEDS V2.0) held within the
Pacific Biological Station salmon escapement database.

Completeness of paper records of individual stream inspection logs, known as SIL’s are
highly variable between streams and years. There may be large data gaps of daily
assessment observations prior to 1998, as information collected in paper format have not
been successfully retained due to an ad hoc storage system. An electronic database
capturing information of all SIL’s received from field staff is available from the North
Coast Stock Assessment Unit, however complete records of stream inspections only exist
for the years 1998 to present.

Additional information summarized in this report includes a list of all streams in the North
Coast which have received at least one annual stream escapement report, an inventory of
stream names (Gazetted and common), watershed coding information, maps showing
names and locations of streams, and spawner run timing data.