Name This Spot! 4

Hey folks; we have another winner in our Name This Spot! contest!

Our most recent winner is Charlotte, who correctly identified the Wannock River in the October 13 - Name This Spot! 3 posting.
Ok, time for some disclosure here. I've known Charlotte since she was about 4 years old and I know she lives about 2o some odd miles from the Wannock River - so she should recognize the place!
Your prize will be arriving in a post office near you soon, Charlotte!

For those of you who don't know, the 6 km long Wannock River flows out of Owikeno Lake into the head of Rivers Inlet in the Central Coast, within the Pncima region.


The area has been and still is home to the Wuikinuxv Nation. There are approximately 70 Wuikinuxv people living in their village along the banks of the Wannock. This river and Owikeno Lake have provided food, refuge and home for the Wuikinuxv for thousands of years. The Wannock River and it's keystone salmon species are still relatively rich in biodiversity despite over a century of industrial activity in the area. In recent years, in order to enhance declining salmon stocks, the Wuikinuxv Fisheries Program along with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Rivers Inlet North Coast Salmon Enhancement Association have been been working with Snootli Hatchery in Bella Coola to enhance chinook and, on a smaller scale, sockeye from the Wannock River. There is also an ongoing eco-system study funded in part by the Tula Foundation whereby a research team headed by Dr. Rick Routledge of Simon Fraser University along with with local participation is undertaking research to better understand the early life stages of Rivers Inlet sockeye as they migrate out of their freshwater environment into the ocean.

Some of the west coast's largest chinook salmon, prized by sportfishers from around the world, spawn in the Wannock as well as sockeye, coho and chum.
All of the Owikeno Lake sockeye and other species of salmon have to transit the Wannock in order to get to their natal streams as far as 50 km up the lake.

Thank you, Charlotte and all the others who read Coastal Voices.