VANCOUVER (CBC) - For the first time in 100 years, a sockeye salmon has returned to spawn at a lake just east of Vancouver - but the single salmon will first have to hitch a ride on truck to reach its final destination.

The lone sockeye - its sex unknown - was to be released Friday into Coquitlam Lake after being discovered Wednesday in the fish trap below the Coquitlam Dam.

But the salmon won't be alone once it gets home. After volunteers truck it past the dam and release it into the lake, it will be able to reunite with its landlocked relatives, more than 100 years after their route to the ocean was cut off.

The fish is only one to return so far from a smolt-release program launched by area First Nations and BC Hydro four years ago in hopes of reviving the sockeye run destroyed in 1905 when the Coquitlam Dam was built.

Fraser River sockeye opened to First Nations

Meanwhile, First Nations fishermen on the lower Fraser River are getting what might be their only chance to fish for sockeye this season.

A 48-hour fishery for a handful of elders, which opened Tuesday night in the Fraser Canyon, is being followed by several other short openings for communal and ceremonial fisheries for First Nations on the lower Fraser River.

The openings come amid concerns that sockeye returns this year could be so small that no other fisheries will be allowed, threatening both native food supplies and commercial fisheries.

First Nations further up the Fraser River are hoping for limited openings later in the summer.

It is not clear if there will be any commercial openings for sockeye on the Fraser River this year.

Several short ceremonial and communal chinook fisheries for First Nations bands on the Fraser river also opened this week on the lower Fraser River.

With files from the Canadian Press

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