A Hoy-Scott Watershed Society volunteer releases surplus coho fry into upper Scott Creek (Photo: Ed Paulino / HSWS)
In May 2016, we had approximately 19,000 coho fry at Hoy Creek Hatchery. Hoy-Scott Watershed Society's annual aquaculture license with federal fisheries allows us to incubate up to 25,000 eggs but only release 5,000 1-year-old Coho smolts from that brood year in May.
Any excess are released to the Upper Hoy and Scott Creeks to areas of the stream where wild fry are not present. In addition, fry are released to Pinnacle Pond. From those locations, the Coho fry can make use of the habitat, grow and eventually make their way out to the ocean to complete their lifecycle.
On May 23rd, HSWS volunteers (Rodney, Chris F, Alex, Dulce & Ed) weighed and counted out our surplus and loaded up the truck for transport and released them at 5 different locations. The fry weighed approximately 1.3 grams and were about 5 months old.
Hatchery manager, Rodney Lee looks over his son releasing surplus salmon into the creek on May 23rd in Coquitlam. (Photo: Ed Paulino / HSWS)
While at these release sites, we observed some larger trout with the smallest being 4-5" and the largest 6-7" but no small fry were present. We also saw a black bear.
The locations we released the surplus coho fry to on Monday, May 23rd were:
Upper Hoy - Camelback Ct off of Plateau; Upper Scott - Panorama by Bramblewood; Upper Hoy - by Plateau Village at Johnson and Plateau; Upper Scott - Hydro pond at the top of Eagle Mountain Drive; and Pinnacle Pond.
Dulce releases surplus salmon into Scott Creek(Photo: Ed Paulino)
Once our remaining fry grow to 2 -3 grams they will be ready for marking, and will have their adipose fins clipped to identify them as hatchery fish. Our hatchery fry continue to be hand fed twice per day.
This healthy looking black bear was spotted by our team beside Pinnacle Pond, Coquitlam (Photo: Ed Paulino / HSWS)