Volunteers with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers in SE Burnaby, BC, are happy to be seeing one of the best returns of spawning salmon in the creek in many years.
Volunteers have counted over 60 spawners so far, with about 90% of those being chum.
Yumi and I have also been checking out other creeks in the lower mainland of BC, and there are tons of chum everywhere. We also visited the Tenderfoot Hatchery north of Squamish, BC, a few days ago, and were blown away by the number of chum in the area.
Video here: https://youtu.be/7YKntHUkAdQ
Some are saying there may be a relation between the shutting down of fish farms resulting in vastly reduced sea lice numbers on juvenile pink and chum salmon for this year’s abundance of chum spawners. . .
Effect of government removal of salmon farms on sea lice infection of juvenile wild salmon in the Discovery Islands
Abstract
In response to a federal government order, the number of salmon farms operating in the Discovery Islands region declined from eight in 2020, to one in 2022. Over this period, 1627 juvenile pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and chum (Oncorhynchus keta) salmon captured at sites throughout the study area were examined for sea lice. The average number of sea lice per juvenile salmon declined by 96% over the study period. Such a substantial decline was not witnessed in similar samples from the nearby Broughton Archipelago. The decline could not be attributed to chance sampling, and only a small proportion of it was associated with environmental fluctuations.