Skeena River Fish and Their Habitat
Ken A. Rabnett and Allen S. Gottesfeld
Foreword by Jim Lichatowich.
British Columbia's Skeena River is one of the great salmon rivers of the North Pacific. The river and its fish have supported indigenous peoples for thousands of years. More recently, the Skeena has earned world renown for its recreational fishery and magnificent wilderness setting. Yet, over the last century, fish populations have declined from overfishing, habitat alteration and, to an unknown degree, climate change. Development of mining as well as oil and gas resources may also pose threats to fish populations.
This book presents the first thorough review of the salmon stocks and freshwater species of the Skeena River. Initial chapters summarize the river's environment, fish, and fisheries. The book then examines the physical geography, development history, indigenous use, and major salmon stocks of each of the watershed's sub-basins.
This volume makes available for the first time – to researchers, field biologists, fishermen and natural history enthusiasts – both the published, and largely unpublished, literature on this productive salmon ecosystem.
About the author
Ken A. Rabnett is a fisheries researcher widely familiar with the grey literature on the resources of the Skeena watershed. He leads fisheries research projects for the Skeena Fisheries Commission and has been a resident of the Skeena watershed for 25 years.
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Allen S. Gottesfeld is head scientist for the Skeena Fisheries Commission, a consortium of Skeena First Nations fisheries management groups in northern British Columbia. He has been a professor of watershed management at the University of Northern British Columbia and taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Alberta. He has lived in the Skeena watershed for 30 years.
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