This article documents the behind-the-scenes work of volunteers at the Goldstream ‘Howard English’ Hatchery, from the moment salmon are harvested from the river during the fall spawning season to the return of their progeny years later.
---
Born in the first half of the 20th century, Howard English began fishing and hunting in the South Island’s Goldstream area as a young adult.
In the '60s, English started noticing the declining salmon population of the Goldstream River as he witnessed firsthand the impact of increasing extraction of water for drinking purposes, urban encroachment, highway construction, logging, and overfishing.
After urging the federal government to take action and prevent a full-stream collapse, his plea fell on deaf ears.
Taking this issue upon his shoulders and embarking on years of lobbying, English finally secured both the permits and funding required to build a small hatchery in the 1980s.
Decades later, the Goldstream ‘Howard English’ Hatchery, which began as a one-man volunteer project with a single gravel incubation box, now operates a full-fledged salmon enhancement program and provides stock assessment research for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
Open year-round, operating six days a week, the facility relies on some 100 volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, united by the shared goal of sustaining coho and chum populations in the Goldstream River system, explained hatchery president Ian Izard.
Salmon harvesting
Starting in early fall, and continuing to late November, volunteers head down to specific sections of the Goldstream River where fish traps were set earlier that same year. Day after day, wearing waders, they hand-pick salmon from the stream. Coho and chum considered ready to spawn are momentarily placed in a tank at the back of a pickup truck, while those not yet ready are released back into the water.
Once the traps are emptied, the team returns to the hatchery, where the fish are transferred and triaged by species and gender into containment tanks.
At this point, the salmon are held in line to have their semen, known as milt, and eggs harvested.
Fertilization
During the spawning season, the hatchery process sees anywhere from 30 to 60 fish daily. After a single well-placed blow to the head with a short metal club, volunteers provide salmon with a swift death.
Sorted between male and female, the egg and milt intake is ready to begin.
For females, a blade akin to a milk bag cutter is introduced in their vent to cut open the fish’s belly and give way to their bright-orange-red egg sac which is carefully placed in a metal bowl.
For the males, one volunteer firmly runs their thumb down the salmon's belly while another holds a small plastic bag to collect the milt.
Once both roe and semen are collected, they are combined, and water is quickly added to harden the eggs and ensure fertilization. Excess sperm, ovarian fluid, and blood are rinsed away before the eggs are transferred into incubation trays, explained Izard.
He added that all fish carcasses accumulated throughout the spawning season are frozen and, in early spring, will be disposed of in strategic locations across Greater Victoria to return vital nutrients to the forest.
Incubation
Stored in a dark room, these incubation trays – designed to simulate river gravel nests, also called redds – will serve as homes for the eggs until they hatch and fledgling salmonids are ready to swim.
Successfully fertilized eggs will develop a dark spot within the first month, marking the “eyed stage.” Unfertilized eggs, which look and feel similar to a hard-boiled egg yolk, are removed by hand.
On average, coho eggs hatch in about seven weeks, while chum emerge after roughly four months.
Once hatched, these nascent fish are now known as alevin. Without a fully formed mouth or digestive system, they live off the nutrients provided by a small yolk sac located on their belly. This phase spans from three to five weeks for coho and chum salmon.
As they mature and undergo various physiological changes, the yolk sac is fully absorbed by the alevin which then becomes a fry.
Maturing
In the wild, once coho reach the fry stage and emerge from their gravel nests, they leave the river system, rushing out to begin their journey at sea. In parallel, when hatchery coho reaches this stage, it signals to volunteers that the fry are ready to be released back into the Goldstream watershed.
Chum, however, spend up to a year-and-a-half in freshwater, where they feed, gain weight, and prepare for life in the ocean. To mimic these conditions, hatchery chum fry are transferred from their incubation trays to rearing tanks where they spend approximately 12 months and are fed a blend of fish meal and kelp.
Before any salmonids are returned to the river, volunteers clip their small fleshy adipose fin to mark that they have been hatchery-raised.
Throughout the entire process, the operation maintains a consistent survival rate of around 90 per cent year after year, noted volunteer Gladys Schreiner.
Salmon return
Despite experiencing several consecutive years of below-average returns, including last year’s 'disastrous' numbers when only 65,000 eggs were raised, this year looks more promising, highlighted Schreiner.
With hatcheries across the province seeing their best returns in 20 years, the Goldstream facility is on track to collect around a quarter of a million eggs, with one-tenth being coho and the remainder chum.
Already at work to raise the next generation of fish, volunteers are looking forward to welcoming some of the survivors back in three to five years.
