• by  Jacob Zinn - Saanich News
• posted Jan 26, 2016 at 4:00 PM
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Peter McCully gets asked a lot about why he throws dead salmon into local rivers.
Since 1992, the biologist from the Howard English Hatchery has worked with the Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society for its annual salmon carcass toss at Douglas Creek, which sees members plant salmon carcasses in the water to encourage spawning.

“It’s like fertilizing the river: the nutrients that are carried in the carcasses of the salmon have been acquired at sea,” said McCully. “They’re called marine-derived nutrients, and they’re what make our streams and rivers so bountiful.”
Dozens of volunteers turned out for the salmon toss, along with Saanich councillors Judy Brownoff and Vicki Sanders, and Saanich South MLA Lana Popham.

Because of the rainfall on the west coast, McCully said the rain tends to wash out the nutrients from local streams, making them nutrient poor and negatively impacting their ability to support production of the bottom of the food chain.
However, with a little help from volunteers, Pacific salmon have a way of overcoming the washout of nutrients and eventually making streams more bountiful.

“The fish will come back and spawn once and then it will die,” he said. “All of that carcass is recycled into the food chain, and when the salmon is out at sea and it’s feeding, it accumulates what we call marine-derived nutrients. Things like nitrogen and carbon and phosphorus, and they’re the building blocks of the food chain in fresh water.
“That’s why we’re putting dead fish into the stream.”

The hatchery provided dozens of carcasses for the event, which gained permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to move the salmon between watersheds. Volunteers also released juvenile coho into the creek, which are expected to stay in the creek until May before heading into the ocean and, with any luck, returning to spawn 18 months later.
“We did this last year, and we actually had coho come back last fall,” said McCully. “Things are happening, things are working.”

While the creek still needs nutrients to build the salmon population, McCully said the combined efforts of the society and the hatchery over the last 24 years have already made a significant impact to Douglas Creek. 
“In the ensuing years, habitat restoration has been conducted, the water quality has improved to the point it supports fish,” he said. “All of this work, it doesn’t happen overnight – it involves a lot of people, a lot of effort, and in this case, a lot of time. It’s a work in progress.

“This is very much evidence of a community initiative that brings people together. It’s really a great showpiece of how volunteer power can make things work.”  >> Click on the above image or this link to go to original Saanich News Article.

​In the process of beginning habitat rehabilitation of Tseycum (Wsikem) Creek, through excavating and dredging sediment, the BC Ministry of Transportation (guided by biologist, Sean Wong) discovered evidence of fish weirs used by the Tseycum people to catch salmon. According to people of Tseycum village, the return of spawning Pacific salmon had not been observed for almost twenty-five years. The salmon had been the basis of a local, active fishery: the return of the salmon had been a foundation for diet, livelihood, education, culture and spirit.

Beyond their oceanic sojourns, Pacific salmon tend to inhabit freshwater environments built by glaciers, powered by precipitation, housed by forests, and nourished by salmon returning to spawn. A salmon stream may be many thousands of years in the making. Habitat rehabilitation of Tseycum Creek began with the excavation and development of spawning pools, the removal of sediment that would suffocate salmon eggs, the replacement of cobble and gravel to hold salmon eggs, and the re-planting of native flora to prevent erosion and help stabilize creek banks. The habitat rehabilitation and stewardship of Tseycum Creek has been a task undertaken by several parties: Tseycum First Nation; BC Ministry of Transportation; Victoria Airport Authority; Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Association (GVSEA). 

For the last two years, coho salmon fry from the Howard English Goldstream Hatchery have been placed into Tseycum Creek for the purpose of re-building a self-sustaining salmon run. Last year, chum salmon eggs (in a cassette incubator) were placed within a pool of Tseycum Creek for the very same purpose. This year, on January 21st, 2016, about 45000 chum eggs (at 360 accumulated thermal units) and 500 coho fry (nearly 1 year old) were placed in Tysecum Creek. It is the hope of this stewardship project that the young salmon will find a new home in Tysecum Creek. The continued rehabilitation of Tseycum Creek and the restoration of a tragic, historic loss depends on the return of these young salmon as spawning adults.

The salmon have returned.

Since the Autumn of last year, members of the Tseycum First Nation have participated in the enhancement of chum and coho salmon from the Goldstream river. During this time, they have practiced fishery management assessment techniques, fish husbandry techniques, and stream habitat surveys. It has been a privilege to share these teachings and experiences with Archie Jones and Robert (Bobby) Louie. It is our hope that they continue, and improve on this sharing with others.

As for the results of the Pacific salmon transplant at Tseycum Creek, the ideal return of chum will be 150 mature spawning adults (from the 45000 eggs) in 3-4 years. If successful, the coho salmon fry will be expected to return to Tseycum Creek in 18-20 months. To learn more about Pacific salmon, and other fish, consider a visit to “http://www.fishbase.org/search.php”. 


Blog Article By: Ben Eardley
Intro Text By: Adam Wilson
Photography By: Alexandra Scott