As you mentioned, Mr. Hanley, it's not my area of expertise, but I have spent 16 years with the Yukon Fish and Game Association, first in a board member role and then as vice-president and president.
From working with the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee and some of our other partners directly with salmon, it's my understanding that the largest fish, historically, were the ones that made it up the river. I believe the committee has heard that from some of the past witnesses.
The nets that were used, which were quite large, were reduced over time to try to let the bigger ones go by. On the 3,200-kilometre stretch, it was always historically known that the biggest fish made it.
With them having the most energy by the time they got to the end, more of these biggest fish had the ability to spawn than they do today, as I understand it and as we heard in a study that was done from 2017 to 2020. I can't remember the names of the authors right now. I'm sorry. They noted that some of the fish made it to the ladder and turned around. They may have spawned right by the dam or they may not have. Other carcass studies showed that some of the fish looked like they did not spawn at all, while others looked like they only spawned a bit and didn't finish spawning.