We managed and conserved
our fish stocks in many ways. An over-arching harvesting principle was to take only what was needed so there would be fish for the future. For instance, we selectively harvested salmon at different stages of migration, depending on whether we wanted the thinner drier ones for smoke drying, the oilier ones for immediate consumption, or the females for their roe for stink eggs.
Cyril Carpenter shared that when fishing for sockeye and dog salmon, the smaller fish were taken and the bigger and stronger ones would be let go to reproduce. We also conserved our stock by creating openings in the stone wall fish traps at the end of the season so that no fish would be accidentally caught in the trap.
Additionally, we managed our salmon by creating ponds in the river so the salmon would have a resting spot when migrating upstream during low water. Or, as Emma Reid said, to have a place where “the fish could swish their bellies.” During Emma’s childhood, she recalls people creating such a pool upstream from her Húy̓at family camp.
"They just had the handsaws and when they used to work on the river cause they cleaned the river themselves, my grandparents, grandfather and Harry and the boys. You know they even dug right to the bottom of the river at low tide and they didn't throw the gravel away. They just put it on the grassy side and they dug and dug and dug and dug right hard and all men then would put fresh gravel on there from just outside Húy̓at too. They just pack them in by the buckets and dump them in there."
- Emma Reid
Yet another way to facilitate the salmon’s return upstream to spawn was to clear the river of obstructions. Several Elders recall this process.
"All men, they cleaned it all, I don't know if it was yearly. But they raked the ground and got rid of all the... they used to burn a lot of stuff... I guess it was just debris. I don't know. But they cleaned the rivers a lot."
- Emma Reid
"One of the things that's really, really important is that when we looked after the river and the fish... there was more there than there is now. I remember Harry... was kind of directing us what to do and we were picking out some of the snags in the river and then the other thing that he did was that he told us to leave some of the snags that were there but to cut off the branches so the fish could rest on their way."
- Gvágva̓u Steve Carpenter
"[Máǧaǧa] told me how the salmon streams were cleaned before spawning. It happened during the heaviest rainfalls before the salmon spawned. Before the salmon went up to spawn. They went, help clean up the debris that collected and caused log jams... so they could guarantee that the salmon would come back. They had a farming system in place. Harvesting, and I was always told by the old people that we have to look after the river. And you only take what you need."
- Cyril Carpenter
