The Federal Fisheries Minister says the Big Bar rock slide is a crisis, but officials are doing their best to transport fish above the slide side, north of Lillooet.

Jonathan Wilkinson says there are about 270,000 salmon that have been recorded in the river below the rock slide, and about 26,000 have been moved upstream by helicopter.

“We are doing everything possible while ensuring the safety of our crews to enable as many salmon as possible to pass through the site, all in an effort to secure the sustainability of these runs and support the communities who rely on the success of these stocks,” he said during a press conference on Thursday.

Wilkinson says on an average there are some 2,000 fish being moved above the slide site by helicopter each day, noting 58 of the 100 people working at the site each day are helping with that operation.

He notes there is also evidence that some Chinook salmon have made it past the slide site on their own.

“We have detected tagged Chinook not transported by helicopter over the landslide area, now a significant distance past the slide area,” Wilkinson added. “Additionally, in recent days, our acoustic monitoring station located a full day’s migration above the slide shows larger number of fish that can be accounted for by helicopter transport alone.”

Wilkinson says there are also some rock scalers who continue to chip away at ensuring site safety, adding that rock also continues to be placed to create pools, short drops and back eddys that will hopefully allow fish to proceed through the blockage.

He notes the government will direct all the resources needed to support activities to address the blockage that was first reported at the end of June.