Community Articles
General News · 30th November 2023
FOCI Streamkeepers Christine
The truth is we really don’t know where the salmon were this fall. There was enough steady rain in October to raise the creek levels for fish passage, and eager eyes and ears were focussed on bays and creeks for signs of finning, jumping & splashing.
The surprise showing in late September of a couple hundred pink salmon in several creeks - Basil & Squirrel Cove Creeks, Chris’ Lagoon, and even Cortes Bay, set the tone for a promising chum run in October & November. There were strong pink runs throughout the coast, and although we don’t typically see pink runs on Cortes (2015 was the last pink run here), it is well known that pinks will stray into new creeks, especially when their numbers are abundant. DNA samples were taken to determine where these pinks strayed from.
Anticipation and hope was high for chums to show mid-October, The first report of chum was in Whaletown Lagoon and Creek in late October followed by chum first seen in Basil Creek on November 8. However, try as we might, streamkeepers were unable to will substantial runs into local creeks, and our counts were low - about 25 chum in Basil Creek and a pair of chums in Whaletown Creek. No live fish were seen in James Creek, but chum carcasses and skins were spotted. Low chum numbers recorded by Fisheries & Oceans in Campbell River mirrored this trend through-out this fisheries area, with exceptions on Quadra Island in Hyacinthe & Granite Bay Creeks.
There are multiples factors which overlay and influence the health of any one salmon population as they move from creeks to estuaries and out to sea, making this a complex issue to understand. Weather extremes of drought and heavy rains cause slides & siltation which we observed in Basil Creek. Eel grass create a rich, safe nursery in estuaries, but on Cortes, much of our eel grass beds have disappeared as geese have become resident, pulling up the eel grass rhizomes. Warming sea water is likely affecting salmon movement in the ocean. These are more recent phenomena that overlay the historic events of overfishing and destructive forestry.
But, salmon are also known to be resilient and can adapt if given time and opportunity. The removal of the fish farms in the Discovery Islands two years ago may be the underlying reason that pink salmon did so well this fall on Cortes, given that pinks have a 2-year life cycle. Streamkeepers are wondering if spawning chum, with a 4-year life cycle, may increase here in 2025.
In the meantime, Streamkeepers and Klahoose Fisheries continue to collaborate on enhancement of wild stocks. The Tla’min hatchery will be providing 50,000 chum eggs in December which will be divided between the Klahoose hatchery, and Basil & Whaletown Creeks. And in response to poor chum returns in 2022 & 2023, FOCI Streamkeepers are looking at how else to build wild salmon stocks and an overdue examination of actions that can be taken in the context of environmental extremes.
The surprise showing in late September of a couple hundred pink salmon in several creeks - Basil & Squirrel Cove Creeks, Chris’ Lagoon, and even Cortes Bay, set the tone for a promising chum run in October & November. There were strong pink runs throughout the coast, and although we don’t typically see pink runs on Cortes (2015 was the last pink run here), it is well known that pinks will stray into new creeks, especially when their numbers are abundant. DNA samples were taken to determine where these pinks strayed from.
Anticipation and hope was high for chums to show mid-October, The first report of chum was in Whaletown Lagoon and Creek in late October followed by chum first seen in Basil Creek on November 8. However, try as we might, streamkeepers were unable to will substantial runs into local creeks, and our counts were low - about 25 chum in Basil Creek and a pair of chums in Whaletown Creek. No live fish were seen in James Creek, but chum carcasses and skins were spotted. Low chum numbers recorded by Fisheries & Oceans in Campbell River mirrored this trend through-out this fisheries area, with exceptions on Quadra Island in Hyacinthe & Granite Bay Creeks.
There are multiples factors which overlay and influence the health of any one salmon population as they move from creeks to estuaries and out to sea, making this a complex issue to understand. Weather extremes of drought and heavy rains cause slides & siltation which we observed in Basil Creek. Eel grass create a rich, safe nursery in estuaries, but on Cortes, much of our eel grass beds have disappeared as geese have become resident, pulling up the eel grass rhizomes. Warming sea water is likely affecting salmon movement in the ocean. These are more recent phenomena that overlay the historic events of overfishing and destructive forestry.
But, salmon are also known to be resilient and can adapt if given time and opportunity. The removal of the fish farms in the Discovery Islands two years ago may be the underlying reason that pink salmon did so well this fall on Cortes, given that pinks have a 2-year life cycle. Streamkeepers are wondering if spawning chum, with a 4-year life cycle, may increase here in 2025.
In the meantime, Streamkeepers and Klahoose Fisheries continue to collaborate on enhancement of wild stocks. The Tla’min hatchery will be providing 50,000 chum eggs in December which will be divided between the Klahoose hatchery, and Basil & Whaletown Creeks. And in response to poor chum returns in 2022 & 2023, FOCI Streamkeepers are looking at how else to build wild salmon stocks and an overdue examination of actions that can be taken in the context of environmental extremes.
