our Salmon's Journey
Each fall our Coho salmon find their way back from the ocean to the mouth of Shawnigan Creek, where they stage at the base of the waterfalls to begin their upstream migration.
Although we still net some of the waterfall jumpers by hand, for the most part the salmon are naturally guided into our fish trap facility located beside the falls. Inside the trap, there are a series of cages that are in place to protect the salmon from predators (like otters), and from poachers.
When there are a number of salmon collected in the trap, they are then netted by hand and passed up to the second floor. This is a very wet and strenuous step of the process, but every year a group of our dedicated volunteers gets it done!
On the second floor the salmon are then placed in a holding trough where they are staged for the next step of the process.
The salmon are then placed in a specially designed elevator car that runs on a rail system built into the side of the 110 foot high ravine beside the trap. The elevator is powered by using a rope and pulley system powered by a truck at the top of the ravine.
At the top of the ravine, the salmon are then counted and transferred from the elevator car to a live fish transfer tank on a trailer. The trailer is then pulled to a location above the falls.
Once at the release site, the salmon are then placed into another trough and then they slide down the bank into the creek in our specially designed 'salmon slide'.
Once the salmon are in the creek, a group of volunteers ensures that every fish has made a full recovery from the various steps in the transfer process. The fish usually rest for a very brief period, but they quickly realize they can continue migrating upstream to spawn at various locations in the Shawnigan Lake watershed.
Once our Coho head up Shawnigan Creek to spawn, we don't have a lot of information on exactly where they go to spawn, or where in the system the fry are maturing to smolts. What we do know from the annual return numbers and consistently setting new return records is that the run is thriving, even through adverse climate events like heat domes and atmospheric rivers.
Another important part of our project is supplying brood stock to several area fish hatcheries. We supply Shawnigan Lake School, which is the only school in BC with its own fish hatchery on campus, with brood stock, and staff and students participate in our relocation efforts each year. We also supply additional brood stock to the Goldstream River salmon hatchery. Shawnigan Lake School published a short reel highlighting their students activities from last year, watch them in action below.
