For more than one hundred years Coquitlam went without sockeye salmon in its rivers. Now they’re coming back by water and by land.
Discover Salmon
Beanies Reveal Seal Strategy
The seals are not going after just any salmon. They are targeting juvenile Coho and Chinook that are heading from freshwater out to the Salish Sea.
Just Give Me A Rock
The volunteers have learned a lot in the last 30 years – about ecoystems and the way in which hundreds of natural elements intersect. “Give me a rock and I can now talk for hours.” Zo Ann says, picking up a rock and pointing to the significance of a miniscule creature found on its underside.
Concrete Change
Using concrete to cast baffles and fish passages is “an idea that engineers are becoming more aware of when they’re working in sensitive habitat,” says Joel Shimozawa, a technical marketing engineer for Langley Concrete Group in Chilliwack, which installed the new culverts. “It’s also a building material that will last a long time.”
From Roadway to Rainway
Like transit lines for wild salmon, over 50 freshwater streams used to flow through the City of Vancouver. Little St. George Creek, or te Statlew in the Musqueam language, is one of these historic waterways – a stream that once ran along St. George Street, from Kingsway to the False Creek Flats.
Ocean Hazard Under Microscope
A salmon’s diet changes as it grows. Juvenile salmon go for zooplankton among other freshwater food sources; adult salmon in the ocean feed on krill and small fish. But the dense collections of plants that form the very base of the marine food web – algal blooms – pose a threat.
Get a Stream Address
Salmon Sundays are an institution at the Mossom Creek Hatchery and Education Centre in Port Moody. Visit any Sunday and you’ll likely encounter one of the founders – Ruth Foster or Rod MacVicar – and a cluster of volunteers.
More in Store when You Explore
Think of the Discover Salmon section at uninterrupted.ca as a pool of stories to dabble in – plus it’s a pathway to great organizations with a wealth of information and research already available online about wild salmon and their importance.
Hello and goodbye to the Fry
A pick up truck parks by a small creek, with 25,000 fry in the back. Gently scooped with a net, the young chum salmon are placed in pails light enough for a child to carry. Small hands hold pails of water as small feet make their way to the nearby creek, and parents murmur encouragement.
Sew a salmon habitat
Nikki Wright inspires people to “sew” grass – eelgrass to be precise – lots of it and into the ocean floor. The marine vegetation is native to the west coast, and a lifesaver for young salmon. After they spend a year or two in freshwater, the salmon head out for the ocean where they are vulnerable to sharp-eyed eagles and other predators. The long eelgrass that grows close to the shoreline provides essential protection for the salmon and a food source of minnows and small insects.
