We were happy to finally see a pair of Chum salmon spawning in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC, today. For decades, Chum would start arriving like clockwork around Oct. 18, depending on rain, but the last few seasons we haven’t seen them until the end of the month.

You can see the pair of Chum just upstream of the redd, or depression in the gravel, that the female has been digging with her tail.

We also found a dead Coho. Unfortunately it was another female that had died without spawning. We see this a lot on Byrne Creek as the water quality is very poor in this urban area. Fingers crossed we’ll eventually find some that have spawned. . .