Port Renfrew Fish Hatchery

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Port Renfrew Fish Hatchery 2000

Fish Hatchery News 1999 (click here)

19 second mpeg video
(4 minute download at 33.6)

Farm coho returning to their home from where they were released. A half million to one million fish are released from this hatchery each year.

Spawning Coho under the new bridge at the hatchery.

These fish were released from this hatchery 2 years ago. The male fish go ahead of the females and break a path for them to reach their goal. This day was different. The fish you see here had found a newly flooded pool due to the recent rain fall which would later dry up after a day or two. The fisheries people later in the day scooped these ones out and these were to be used for their eggs.

water tower turbine overflow

Water Turbine Tower

to supply electricity for the operation. The holding tanks for the fish require water circulating at six hundred gallons per minute.

China hat tanks

Holding tanks

The females that have been predicted to be ready to spawn in the nest five days go in these tanks. They like to be kept with the cover closed.

salmon fish egg buckets

Egg collection process

This is where the fish are killed and the fin with the tag gets removed with the head and sent to Victoria to be verified and counted.

eggs ready for fertilization

The eggs
are taken from the female at this table. The eggs get placed in this bin at the other end and covered. The milk is then squeezed from 2 males per 1 female.

egg seperator

Egg separator

The fertilized eggs get poured into here and are automatically separated. In one bucket are the dead eggs and the other side are the good eggs

egg incubation

Incubation

The incubation of the eggs is done in these cabinets of trays. These are kept at an even warm temperature.

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Fish Hatchery News 1999

This, our 21st cycle year came to an end this July as we released 300,000 very large Chinook smolts into the San Juan River. We have been feeding the Chinook smolts in net pens at the entrance to Fairy Lake for the last 2 months, so they are well acclimatized to the San Juan River. Their release brings our total Chinook release to 7 million since we started in 1977. We also have released 11.5 million Coho fry and smolts since 1977.

A huge seaward migration of salmon smolts leaving the rivers from California to Alaska will be taking place near the end of June and early July. Few people ever see it happen, because salmon smolts usually move at night, are just 2 to 6 inches long, are silver in colour, and are completely silent. However, their predators know that they are coming, and any animal or bird that eats fish gets well fed this time of year. The survival of wild salmon in the San Juan was very high this cycle, so up to one million Chinook, Coho, Sockeye and Steelhead smolts could pass under the Deering and Harris Cove bridges in the next few weeks.

Article from the Port Renfrew OBSERVER
Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island,
B.C. Canada

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