Dozens from the Revelstoke (snkx虒ykntn) community gathered Wednesday morning as the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) set 10,000 eager sockeye salmon fry and six young sturgeon free into the Columbia waters off the shores of Centennial Park.
The ceremonial release May 14, one of several fish rewilding events hosted by ONA across the Okanagan and Columbia River basin, was supported by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and gave people of all ages a change to gently raise and empty a plastic cup of young sockeye into the day's calm waters.
The salmon, after the larger sturgeon were unleashed into the depths to the beat of drum and sylix song, often took off in schools northeastward, hugging the shore as they swam seemingly for the mouth of the Columbia River.
"Thankful that I'm in a position to see all the work the Okanagan Nation Alliance has done," Chief Keith Crow (kal蕯l霉pa蓩使n) of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band said. "We're putting more than five million (fish) back into the system this year 鈥� that's huge."
At Wednesday's ceremony, following multiple releases Tuesday in Castlegar (sn涩uxwqnm) and Slocan (takli蕰aickst), ONA members old enough to remember being fortunate as children to fish right from their streams remarked they never thought they'd see those days again.
"It's one of my favourite times of the year," Crow said, looking forward to future generations reaping the benefits of this work. "It's about the kids."
syilx Nation member Richard Armstrong (caylx) of the Penticton Indian Band shared he's been participating in fish releases like Wednesday's for decades, since age 14.
"I want to thank all of you who did the work raising those little fish," he said. "From the bottom of my heart, lim limt (thank you)."
Revelstoke Mayor Gary Sulz was among the dozens, young and old, to raise and release a cup of sockeye as Armstrong offered the fry his wishes.
"Extremely proud to be witnessing this and what the future will look like for our children, our children and for their children and grandchildren," Sulz said.
Chad Fuller, ONA fisheries program manager, said the sockeye are sourced from the k艂 cp虛蓹lk虛 stim虛 Hatchery in the Okanagan, while the sturgeon come from Upper Arrow Lake's Shelter Bay. To date, he said ONA has unleashed about 30,000 fry from Revelstoke's shores, though this includes both ceremonial and scientific releases.
"That's also for the ceremonial purpose," Fuller emphasized. "What we do to the land, we do to ourselves. How we treat it by actively returning these fish to our home, that piece is why we do the ceremonies. It's a marriage."
These releases have yielded even greater success and more salmon returning home than the Fraser River sockeye run, according to Fuller, and ONA's Fish in Schools (FinS) educational program has been instrumental in engaging youth in this work as well.
Tara Montgomery, ONA communications lead, said these release ceremonies have been happening around the B.C. Interior since 2021. Tagging programs have showed that the return on this work can be a slim one in 1,000 fry making it back to lay eggs as an adult fish, according to ONA fisheries biologist Patrick Zubick, but that hasn't discouraged Nations' efforts in the slightest.
For years, the assumption had been that these fish were getting terminally blocked along the Columbia River by a series of dams including Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee. However, Fuller said ONA staff have managed to confirm that fry from these releases sometimes find gaps in the dams 鈥� and even make it all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
"When we hear people say it's impossible, we watched it happen," Montgomery added.
Through continued fry ceremonies in Revelstoke and other Upper Arrow Lake communities, Fuller said ONA will continue working toward its goal of one day rearing fish 鈥� both juveniles and adults 鈥� as far north as the Upper Columbia.
"The waters remember the fish," he noted.
Learn more about ONA's work at .