Rearing Pond Invertebrate Salvage

View fullsize

Crayfish catch! All found in the bottom of the rearing pond. (Photo: HSWS)

Hoy/Scott Watershed Society conducted the annual rearing pond salvage on May 24.

Coho smolts were released on May 14. The water drained from the pond leaves lots of discoveries for invertebrates and crustaceans like crayfish, stoneflies and lamprey for discovery. One salmon smolt, as well as about a dozen fry, were also found. All were released into the stream.

Floorboards over the pond were first removed. After the salvage, the City of Coquitlam arranges for the pond mud and sediment to be removed via McCrae's Environmental Services (a vacuum truck), and then the pond will be pressure washed by the Society, floorboards returned, and then the creek water is reintroduced.

Later this month, the rearing pond will then be ready for the next coho brood to be transferred from the hatchery to live there until May 2023.

View fullsize

(Photo: HSWS)

View fullsize

Tyler searching with flashlight. (Photo: HSWS)

View fullsize

(Photo: HSWS)

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.

Hoy-Scott Watershed Society releases surplus salmon fry

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.

See MORE PHOTOS from the release on our Facebook album.

This healthy looking black bear was spotted by our team beside Pinnacle Pond, Coquitlam (Photo: Ed Paulino / HSWS)