The Chinook salmon stock in the South Thompson River is faring much better than most other salmon runs in southern B.C., although there isn’t much competition with salmon stocks at “historic lows.”

In fact, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans assessed 13 Chinook stocks last summer, 12 are at risk of extinction. Only the South Thompson Chinook stock is deemed of not being at risk.

DFO regional salmon manager Jeff Grout says the restricted fishing area has now been extended at the mouth of the Fraser River, to reduce salmon mortality. And, Chinook caught that are over 80 centimetres long will now also have to be released.

“The stocks are facing major stresses and historic lows in their populations. And that causes us to take unprecedented action.”

The DFO says pressures like pollution, development, deforestation, rising water temperatures and extreme weather events are affecting habitats in rivers for Chinook salmon.

Meantime, the department estimates that at least 50 and 90 per cent of all Chinook that travel through the Fraser River past Big Bar did not make it past the Big Bar landslide site to their spawning grounds.