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An albino chum salmon fry seen next to normal chum fry
Hoy-Scott Watershed Society's hatchery manager, Rodney Lee discovered a rare albino chum salmon fry this past week while assessing fish in the incubation room at Hoy Creek hatchery in Coquitlam.
Last year we found a conjoined twin coho fry.
Department of Fisheries reps led by Scott Ducharme (right) lead HSWS members through a chum egg take on October 26th at Hoy Creek Hatchery.
Hoy-Scott Watershed Society began incubating chum eggs in October and November. The Society had only been raising coho salmon for the past twenty-years or so. The addition of chum was made possible through the generous support of the Pacific Salmon Foundation enabling us to purchase and install a new incubation stack and piping for our Capilano trough room. Thanks also to the DFO and City of Coquitlam.
The hatchery has not raised chum since the mid 1990s and applied to do so again in 2015.
"Most of the chum eggs are now eyed and doing great. We had a poor survival rate in 2 of the trays, but the remainder looked good," said hatchery manager Rodney Lee. Coho egg-takes are our next focus and are now underway.
The new chum egg incubation stack is now incubating over 36,000 eggs. Thanks to the Pacific Salmon Foundation, DFO and the City of Coquitlam for contributions to complete the project.
In the videos below, eggs from 4 chum salmon are fertilized by hand at Hoy Creek Hatchery in Coquitlam. Guided by Scott Ducharme of the DFO. See MORE PHOTOS on our Facebook page.
Volunteers clean and disinfect equipment in the Capilano trough room at the Hoy Creek Hatchery
On Saturday, June 25th volunteers with the Hoy-Scott Watershed Society, under the guidance of hatchery manager, Rodney Lee, moved the coho salmon brood from the Capilano trough room over to the outdoor rearing pond adjacent to Hoy Creek.
After the transfer of over 6000 fry, members cleaned all equipment in the trough room, which will not be used again until brood intake in the fall. The Capilano trough will remain empty until early next year.
Both incubation areas were also cleaned and disinfected so they are ready for brood intake this fall / winter. 2016 will mark the first year of the intake of chum salmon, along with coho.
We invite the community to come by and take a peek through the fencing on our rearing pond to see the salmon, which are usually visible on clear weather days. The fish are fed daily before 10am. Feel free to stop by and ask questions of our volunteers.
Volunteers Earl, Maurice, and Ed clean the automated feeders
The fish are now living in the rearing pond adjacent to Hoy Creek. They are seen below in this video. See more photos of our rearing pond HERE.
Volunteers clean charcoal by hand in a wheel barrow. The charcoal is used for the filtration system for the Capilano trough.
