Over 12,000 Coho Fry Clipped at Hoy Creek Hatchery

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Thank you to all of our volunteers who came out on June 21 to take part in our annual coho fry fin clipping exercise. We clipped 12,400 coho fry! The salmon are approximately 3 months old.

The exercise was supported by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and held in front of Hoy Creek Hatchery in Coquitlam .

The adipose fin is removed and is a soft, fleshy fin found on the top of the salmon, on the back behind the dorsal fin and just forward of the caudal fin. This marking of our coho supports:

Stock assessment for when salmon return to spawn, the clipped fins allow hatcheries and stream keepers to monitor their return. Selective fisheries - in certain regions and sub-areas, a marked fishery is permitted for the retention of the coho. The procedure also allows for a manual fish count, whereas previously only weight sample counts took place.

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First, the fish are anesthetized in small batches. Once in the solution, they become sleepy within minutes. The volunteers stand ready around a table equipped with a trough with flowing water and beds of water for the fish to lay in. Volunteers work quickly and very carefully to clip fins with disinfected surgical scissors before they wake up, which is within about a minute. Fish are put into the outside trough and end up in the bucket at the end of the table. They are returned to the hatchery to recover.

A portion of the fish will be ponded at various creek locations in Coquitlam and the remaining will soon be transferred from the hatchery Capilano trough room to the outdoor rearing pond until Salmon Leave Home in May 2025. Fish from this brood could then return in about 1.5–2.5 years.

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23,000 Chum Fry Ponded at Hoy Creek Hatchery

Kim and Tyler check for morts witin the freshly ponded chum fry on on Feb. 27.

After a four-year lull and only the second time raising chum since the mid-90s, Hoy Creek Hatchery is holding 23,000 chum fry.

The final 19,000 were moved from the incubation stack and were ponded in the Capilano trough this last Saturday. The salmon are 3 – 4 months old.

The chum fry will be fed and released within three weeks of ponding; this will occur in two releases with the Feb. 18 fry (~4,800) being released first.

The hatchery had released several weeks ago, 1,500 unfed chum fry that had matured well in advance of the remaining heath trays. The last time the society released chum was in 2017.

In addition to the chum, we have ~10,500 healthy coho alevin in the hatchery incubator and ~2,800 soon-to-be smolts in our rearing pond that will be released in May.

In the video above, hatchery manager, Tyler Storgaard ponds the last of the chum salmon from the incubator which was funded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

See more photos on our Facebook page.

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Surplus Coho Salmon Fry Released by Hoy/Scott Watershed Society

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Hatchery manager, Rodney Lee buckets coho fry for transfer to another location.

In May 2020, Hoy Creek Hatchery held approximately 13,620 coho fry.

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 16, HSWS volunteers Rodney Lee and Tyler Storgaard weighed and counted out our surplus of 8,620 fry and loaded up the truck for transport and released them at 5 different locations. The fry weighed approximately 1.3 grams and are about 5 months old.

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Transfer tub in the back of the truck

The Coquitlam locations where surplus coho fry were released on Saturday were: Upper Hoy Creek at Camelback Ct off of Plateau; Upper Scott Creek at Panorama by Bramblewood; Upper Scott Creek at Tanglewood Lane; Beaver Pond at Scott Creek; Lower Beaver Pond; and Pinnacle Pond.

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.

After clipping they will be transferred to the rearing pond west of the hatchery where they will mature until the Salmon Leave Home event in May 2021.

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The fry weighed approximately 1.3 grams and are about 5 months old.

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Hatchery Update – Understanding ATUs

Coho salmon eggs (Photo: HSWS)

For salmonid enhancement purposes Hoy-Scott Watershed Society members actively fished and monitored for coho salmon broodstock collections in late 2019, however due to low returns efforts for collection ceased early.

Our team was successful in a coho broodstock collection of close to 15,000 eggs. 3 of our 4 trays

in the incubator have reached the eyed stage and  have now been shocked (addled). The 4th tray is nearing the ATU (Accumulated Thermal Units) where we will see the eggs becoming eyed as the next stage in their life cycle.

To date, survival rates of the fertilized eggs have been excellent which can be a result of many factors including water temperature/quality, handling by staff, disinfection of eggs to equipment and biosecurity. As a reminder to all, water quality can deteriorate from road salts, ice melting products, heavy rains and discharging of spa equipment (pools/hot tubs) to storm drains.The hatchery water supply is fed entirely from Hoy Creek, and harmful substances can effect broodstock mortality in the hatchery as well as the mortality of wild salmon who have spawned in the creek.

HSWS fish trap in Hoy Creek used for broodstock collection. (HSWS photo)

We've been experiencing low water temperatures since late November and this will naturally slow the broodstock's development. In predicting the hatch we calculate ATU's (Accumulated Thermal Units) which are recorded daily. As the eggs approach 448 - 475 ATU, we will see the next stage. The hatch is a result of free oxygen in the egg and as the embryo requires more, it breaks free of the shell but holds on to the yolk sack (food source). 

This next stage is Alevins - more on this in the next update.

Coho fry held in our rearing pond are healthy and at little risk of mortality during this time of year having a higher amount of dissolved oxygen than we would see during warm water temperatures throughout the summer months. However, they are susceptible to environmental conditions such as water quality as mentioned as earlier. The Fry are slower to respond at this time of year due to lower temperatures and when below 6 C, feeding is even withheld due to a slowing metabolic rate in the Fry.

Eggs being prepared for incubation at Hoy Creek Hatchery (Photo:HSWS)

ATUs explained:

ATU stands for Accumulated Thermal Units. This is the method we use to predict when our salmon eggs will hatch, as well as keep track of the progress of our eggs. Here's how it works:

1. On the day the fish are spawned, we measure the water temperature, and record it in the "temp" column in our logs, as well as the ATU column.

2. Each day, the assigned volunteer goes to the hatchery, records the water temperature in the current day "temp" column, and adds it to the previous day's entry in the ATU column.

For example, if the temperature is 9 degrees on Nov. 7 and 9 degrees on Nov. 8, then the ATU would be 18; and if the temperature is 10 degrees on Nov. 9 the new total would = 28 ATUs.

Once this number hits ~ 250 we will know the eggs are eyed and we can clean them. The eggs develop according to water temperature, cooler water, slower development.

In our next update we'll cover the next milestone (Alevin stage) in coho salmon development.

If you have questions or are interested in volunteering with the society, please contact us at hoyscottwatershed@gmail.com.

(Written by Tyler Storgaard, Asst. Hatchery Manager)

Inside the incubation room at Hoy Creek Hatchery. Calculations of broodstock. (HSWS photo)

Albino chum discovered at Hoy Creek Hatchery

An albino chum salmon fry seen next to normal chum fry

Hoy-Scott Watershed Society's hatchery manager, Rodney Lee discovered a rare albino chum salmon fry this past week while assessing fish in the incubation room at Hoy Creek hatchery in Coquitlam.

Last year we found a conjoined twin coho fry.