Slimy salmon work way better than frozen for the annual salmon carcass transplant, and Mother Nature provided with near 19 C weather for the PKOLS-Mount Douglas Conservancy event on Saturday (March 16).
The warm and sunny day was remarkably different than the originally planned January date when it was -10 C.
It meant the salmon were unusually slimy and well-thawed because of the warm weather. Gloves were provided and the conservancy said there was only one bare-handed brave soul.
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As usual, Goldstream hatchery provided the salmon, 70 this year, one for each of the 70 attendees.
Normally, chum salmon carcasses are provided, but this year Peter McCully, the technical director of the Howard English Hatchery at Goldstream, explained they provided coho because there was a critically low return of chum salmon to Goldstream. Although they were expecting approximately 20,000 chum, only 2,000 showed up.
The conservancy also presented a cheque of $1,000 to the hatchery for many years of help with Douglas Creek restoration efforts. Alongside freezing and storing salmon for the annual carcass transplant, last year they provided 20,000 chum eggs for the artificial salmon bed in the creek. The hatchery also annually provide 200 eggs to the Stream to Sea salmon egg incubation program, where students in local schools release the resulting salmon fry into Douglas Creek.
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