Hoy-Scott Watershed Society members release chum salmon fry

HSWS members met at dusk to release the chum salmon fry. Rodney Lee, hatchery manager (seen center) provides direction.

On March 19th, members of Hoy-Scott Watershed Society met near dusk at the Hoy Creek Hatchery to release 26,363 chum salmon fry.  This was an historic moment as the society has not raised chum salmon since the mid-90s. Fry were netted into buckets in the Capilano trough room, and hand carried to be released into Hoy Creek.  The process was led by hatchery manager, Rodney Lee.

"The 2016 brood stock season was super busy with our hatchery introducing a program to rear Chum salmon in addition to the Coho salmon that we've traditionally raised," said hatchery manager Rodney Lee. "The really warm October had creek temperatures in the 13C range which made for quick incubation early in the season, but then we had the really cold temperatures (creek temp lows under 3C) throughout much of the winter which really slowed development."

"We have approximately 12,000 Coho fry and the last alevins are beginning to 'swim up'.  We will be shutting down and cleaning out our incubators for the season."

"Our Coho fingerlings from the 2015 brood stock season have really started their Spring growth.  With water temperatures rising, their metabolism increases, and they eat at lot more and grow rapidly.  We are focusing on getting them to target release weight in anticipation of our Salmon Leave Home event on May 7th."

Photos were taken by society members: Nathen Blower, Lilian Elliott and Arno Hazebroek

See all our photos in our Facebook album HERE.

Brood transfer and summer cleanup at Hoy Creek Hatchery

Volunteers clean and disinfect equipment in the Capilano trough room at the Hoy Creek Hatchery

On Saturday, June 25th volunteers with the Hoy-Scott Watershed Society, under the guidance of hatchery manager, Rodney Lee, moved the coho salmon brood from the Capilano trough room over to the outdoor rearing pond adjacent to Hoy Creek.

After the transfer of over 6000 fry, members cleaned all equipment in the trough room, which will not be used again until brood intake in the fall. The Capilano trough will remain empty until early next year.

Both incubation areas were also cleaned and disinfected so they are ready for brood intake this fall / winter. 2016 will mark the first year of the intake of chum salmon, along with coho.

We invite the community to come by and take a peek through the fencing on our rearing pond to see the salmon, which are usually visible on clear weather days.  The fish are fed daily before 10am. Feel free to stop by and ask questions of our volunteers.

See our Photo Album from this exercise on Facebook HERE.

Volunteers Earl, Maurice, and Ed clean the automated feeders

The fish are now living in the rearing pond adjacent to Hoy Creek. They are seen below in this video.  See more photos of our rearing pond HERE.

Volunteers clean charcoal by hand in a wheel barrow. The charcoal is used for the filtration system for the Capilano trough.