Salmon spotting season is underway across Vancouver Island with the peak set to hit later this month.
Pacific salmon are returning home to rivers and streams across Vancouver Island after travelling thousands of kilometres. Salmon have already been seen in Goldstream Provincial Park and up Island at Puntledge and Quinsam rivers, according to the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
“(This) is turning out to be a great year to spot salmon,” foundation president and CEO Michael Meneer said. “Ocean conditions have been favourable coupled with significant stewardship and conservation work led by First Nations, streamkeepers, and grassroots groups across B.C. The number of salmon returning to date show they are resilient. We hope people take the opportunity to get outdoors and visit local streams to witness this incredible migration."
Pacific salmon are born in freshwater rivers, migrate to the ocean where they spend several years feeding and growing, then return to their natal stream. Exhausted upon arrival, salmon can migrate more than 3,000 kilometres upstream through freshwater to spawn.
Local watchers get to see locals return “home” to the same streams their parents used to reproduce. Scientists believe they do it by tracing pheromones or chemical signatures of the home stream.
Best practices for viewing means staying out of streams during spawning, said Allison Weber, environmental support technician with Peninsula Streams Society.
That means keeping kids and dogs out of the water as well.
“We really don’t want to disturb the salmon. That’s the last thing we want,” she said. “Even if there aren’t salmon around, there could be eggs that have been deposited and fertilized.”
In Greater Victoria, viewing points exist where Peninsula Streams has restored more than 1,200 metres of instream habitat and 2,500 square metres of riparian habitat in the Colquitz Watershed, which supports the region’s largest urban salmon run. Viewing should be possible on the Colquitz River Trail, Copley Park and the Cuthbert Holmes Park fish fence. Out Sooke way, the Phillips Road bridge provides a prime viewing site. It’s among those highlighted in the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Salmon Spotting Map, featuring more than 90 family-friendly locations across the province to safely view the spectacle.
Island residents can spot large runs of chinook, coho and chum at Goldstream Provincial Park, Qualicum River Hatchery Trails in Qualicum Beach, Stamp Falls Fishway in Port Alberni, Quinsam River Hatchery in Campbell River and Puntledge River Hatchery in Courtenay.
Find the map, and a contest, online at psf.ca/salmonspotting.
