West Coast Adventures - Capilano Salmon Hatchery


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THE CAPILANO SALMON HATCHERY

North Vancouver, British Columbia
By Aja Chantelle

Having grown up in North Vancouver, I was really excited to rediscover The Capilano Salmon Hatchery, which is just right up the street from my house!

This attraction attracts over 450,000 people each year, and best of all - it’s free! At the hatchery’s interpretive center, visitors can learn all about the different species of salmon. You can see life-size models of what the different types of salmon look like, and you can even see live baby salmon in little fish tanks. The view overlooking the river from this site is absolutely beautiful as well.

A BRIEF HISTORY

In 1954, the Cleveland Dam was built. Unfortunately, it blocked the Coho and Steelhead from traveling up the Capilano River to spawn. To help alleviate this problem, the Greater Vancouver Water District built a river-weir and fish ladder. All the Salmon traveling upstream would be diverted to go up the fish ladder and into the hatchery.

Once the salmon arrive here, they are sorted into different ponds according to their species. The females have their eggs strained and the males have their melt (fish sperm) extracted. The staff fertilizes the two and then puts the eggs in incubation trays for a period of time until they turn into baby fishes called fry. The fry are then moved to the hatchery’s rearing ponds where they are fed in fresh water for about one year. When the fish reach their target sizes, they are released back into the river. They travel downstream and after a couple of years in the wild, their instincts drive them back upstream to spawn.

At the Capilano Salmon Hatchery’s Fish ladder display, you can witness the incredible resiliency of these salmon as they jump up the fish ladder to return to the river that gave them life. This is truly an amazing site!

MY EXCLUSIVE BACK STAGE TOUR

Cathy, the assistant manager at the Capilano Salmon Hatchery took me on an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the hatchery. I met the entire friendly staff, Nicole, Jeremy, Sheldon and Greg as well as a few regular volunteers. I was curious, so I asked Nicole how she got into to this line of work. She told me that she had been sport fishing with her family since she was about five years old. Working at the hatchery allows her to help sustain the salmon population. She explained to me that “It feels good to be able to give back to the river.”

Nicole and Sheldon let me get involved hands-on. They let me strain the eggs from the females and extract melt from the males. Greg and Jeremy allowed me to sort the Adult Chinook Salmon. Some of those Chinooks were well over thirty pounds. They were huge! Jeremy taught me that when the Chinook is over thirty pounds it is called a TYEE.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I had a great time learning at the Capilano Salmon Hatchery. Sheldon told me a few fish jokes, Cathy let me feed the fry at the Juvenile Coho rearing pond, and Nicole and I got our hands dirty and mixed the melt with the eggs. Needless to say, I’ve never done these things before. It’s part of the perks of being on TV, I guess!
At the end my visit, I developed a soft spot for these little fishes and the big ones too! The neat thing about the hatchery is you can volunteer to help. I strongly encourage people to visit the Hatchery because it is an incredible educational resource.

When you visit the hatchery, don’t expect to be able to see the harvesting of the melt and salmon eggs as featured on the show. As you can imagine, it would be difficult for the staff to do their jobs if they had hundreds of tourists around. What you saw on the show was an exclusive behind the scenes tour. However, you can still enjoy many of the neat attractions and educational resources at this facility.

I’ll leave you with this fish joke courtesy of Sheldon, the enhancement technician,