Photo: Casey Richardson

Sockeye fry release in 2024, this year's will take place at the Skaha Lake East Marina

Every spring hundreds of locals gather along the Penticton channel riverbanks for the annual sockeye salmon fry release.

This year's fry release will take place on Thursday, May 1 at the Skaha Lake East Marina instead of Shingle Creek, starting at 10 a.m.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance release ceremony is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the sockeye salmon population in local waterways and educate the public about the importance of culture and conservation.

The "Fish in Schools" program brings hundreds of students from throughout the South Okanagan to help release the salmon fry.

Last year saw one of the largest attendance numbers to date and this past fall, the ONA celebrated a record return for sockeye.

The hatchery work began in the late 1990s as an experimental reintroduction into Skaha Lake, since there were no salmon upstream of McIntyre dam.

The long-term program aims to restore the historical range of sockeye in the upper Okanagan watershed, Okanagan Lake, and Skaha Lake systems — part of the Columbia River Basin.

The reintroduction officially got underway in 2004, with the team increasing the number of hatchery fry they raise. Last year, 1.5 million fry were on site to be released throughout the Okanagan.

Each year, sockeye and chinook salmon make their journey from the ocean all the way up into the Okanagan River system. Hatchery teams get a first look at salmon return numbers when they swim past Bonneville Dam, the first dam at the bottom of the Columbia River.

Photo: ONA

The snpinktn Fry Release will take place at Skaha Lake East Marina instead of Shingle Creek on Thursday, starting at 10 a.m.