Equipment set up to monitor salmon at the site of a Fraser River rock slide has been temporarily removed because of heavy debris flow.

B.C.’s Forest Minister Doug Donaldson tells NL News he visited the site, north of Big Bar, on Tuesday, flying over with federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

He says the gear needed to be taken out after significant rainfall in recent days.

“Steps taken so far were taken far was to take out acoustic monitoring to determine if fish were getting above the rock slide area and how many fish were pooling below it. Some initial data was gathered and then unfortunately the recent rains brought so much debris down that the monitoring equipment had to be taken out,” Donaldson tells NL News.

“What I witnesses from our helicopter overflight, and even in talking to staff, was an incredible amount of debris in the river, probably from the Chilcotin River recent flooding. I’m used to seeing debris in the river from when the Skeena reaches its height where I live, but this was just actually a magnitude above that.”

Donaldson expects the acoustic monitoring gear can be put back in in the coming days once the amount of debris lessens, likely in the coming days. He says officials want to find the least-intrusive solution possible.

A rock slide sometime around June 22 created a five-metre waterfall in a remote, narrow section of the river. Since then, officials have been concerned about the impact on Chinook salmon currently moving upstream.