Fish returns range from good to ‘disappointing’

While it hasn’t been as spectacular as last year’s return, spawning salmon are coming back from oceans to waterways in solid numbers across most of the Tri-Cities, with the exception of the pollution-ravaged Stoney Creek.

Aside from an impressive recent chum return, salmon activity in Noons Creek has been: “Just average, nothing spectacular,” said Port Moody Ecological Society vice-president David Bennie.

The water level in the creek dropped in October, making some salmon easy pickings for a young bear, Bennie reported.

“He was knocking off fish right and left,” Bennie said.

However, the river otters that previously ravaged the salmon population haven’t been a factor this year, Bennie said, noting that the predators seem to have moved on to salamanders.

After two “incredibly good” years, this year’s Mossom Creek salmon return is looking solid, reported the Mossom Creek Hatchery and Education Centre board president Kevin Ryan.

This year’s return was boosted by a fish fence installed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Salmon have been swimming through a one-way gate into an estuary below Ioco Road, allowing the hatchery to catch pink salmon for the first time, Ryan said.

“And it’s allowed us to get 100 percent of our chum allotment, which we’ve never had before.”

The team at Mossom hatchery is planning to use the fish fence every year, Ryan said, calling the configuration an “absolute game changer.”

With their tendency to slip into banks and hide, the coho are a little more challenging to count, Ryan said. However, the hatchery has about 75 percent of their allotment, he reported.

“It’s certainly a good year for all of the hatcheries,” Ryan said.

With no major development nearby, Mossom remains a very healthy creek, he said.

Over at Stoney Creek, it’s been a disappointing time, said streamkeeper George Kovacic.

“It’s much less than last year,” he said.

The health of the creek has suffered due to construction waste washing into the waterway, he said.

“As soon as it comes out the Rathburn Culvert, everything turns black and full of sediment, so it’s killing off everything,” Kovacic said. “The fines are only $500 and they really don’t care.”

Coquitlam has previously lobbied the province for the authority to fine construction companies as much as $3,000.

The municipality also requires real-time water monitoring at all major development sites. However, those measures don’t seem to have helped Stoney Creek, Kovacic said.

“After all this work I fear it’s close to death,” he said.

For the past two weeks, chum salmon have been spotted in Hoy and Scott creeks, with coho just starting to show up, according to Hoy-Scott Watershed Society communications director Robbin Whachell.

After an “extraordinary” return in 2024, things are back to normal this year, Whachell explained in an email to the Dispatch.

However, each rainstorm brings more salmon upstream, Whachell added.

“We have a weekly salmon survey underway by longtime member, Rodney Lee who saw an increase in one week from two salmon to 213 in the same stretch of Hoy Creek,” Whachell wrote.

While there appeared to be oil in Hoy Creek recently, the spill was cleaned up by Coquitlam staffers and BC Hydro.

There are more than 42,000 chum eggs incubating at Hoy Creek Hatchery.