...__ _.... _ ------=~= ------

guides for other locations: Little Gently Down Campbell River, Kanaka. Tynehead and Ouellette Creeks.

the Stream They were called Gently Down Our spring issue of PIPnews The Stream. announced a contest to rename expands Those. too. were highly successful. the publication so that it can So, this year, Gently Down The better reflect activities of the entire Teaching the young to respect Stream is expanding to cover Community Involvement Unit. and preserve the salmonid Nanaimo, Weaver /Chehalis, resource is SEP's investment in Oldfield hatchery and Pallant As you can see from our new the future. Over the years, SEP Creek. masthead, we have a winner. Our has produced the educator's new title came from Sheena and packages, Salmonlds In The Recent opinion polls have show Chris Dennison ofKamloops, B.C. Classroom: several film and increasing public concern for the video presentations for school environment. This is reflected in While several suggestions had use and The Qulnsam Five, a an increased emphasis in the new merit, Stream Talk is simple and teacher resource to be used in B.C. education curriculum. In that effective: "Stream" for our creeks conjunction with hatchery tours atmosphere, SEP's extensive and rivers, the beneficiaries of all at Quinsam hatchery. support for teachers who want to community involvement activities. give their classes a better Through this publication, SEP can The success of The Qulnsam appreciation of salmonids can "Talk" to you and we hope you will Five led to the development, a help ensure a better future. all "Talk" to one another, too, by few years ago, of similar study sending us your news.

This newsletter, with its new title, will serve an expanded audience The Deadman in the future. We will continue to provide stories and Tipsheets of is alive interest to Public Involvement volunteers, but you can expect to see other items about what's Dennis Demontier, community happening at the 28 CEDP advisor for the central interior, projects in Pacific Region. has an project on the Deadman River that has the Skeetchestn Some items from beyond SEP Band. the Shuswap Nation Tribal may be of interest, too. Specifi­ Council and the Kamloops Fish cally, would you like information, and Game Club hard at work this ,------1in Stream Talk, about: fall. A pilot hatchery is going into operation along with a project to I 1. Other government programs I assess coho and chinook release "I'm.from The Skeetch." says frsh I (funding. community-based, I strategies for the area. atop hatchery's cake. displayed by I environmental)? Yes D No DI manager. Don Ignace. • I 2. Activities of sahnonid programs! By mid-October, the cooperative in other jurisdications (Europe, effort had completed its chinook I I I U.S.A., Japan)? Yes D No DI egg-take and was getting started on capture of coho broodstock. Chinook returns were below I Please clip and send, along with I VI No.J expectations for the first time I any other comments or news to: I ~Vol. since the stock began to rebuild a I Dixie Cutler, Editor, Stream Talk, I few years ago. With the rest of the NCC Ltd., 1304 Seymour Street, I -*-I Fisheries PAches I Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3P3 or I ...,. and Oceans et Oceans activity going well, everyone is 1 I phone 689-9511. • l+I hoping that it is just a one-year L ______J C anad a dip in an upward curve. While the distance across Massett SETG gets in CB saves the Inlet is only about ten miles. wind conditions usually make the crossing too dangerous for small on good news Sewall fry craft so communting to and from the homestead was out of the George Bates, community advisor We've all heard stories about the question. Only one individual, for northern Vancouver Island and farmer in a remote area removing Diana Prasol, was still living on the adjacent mainland, reports the hired man's appendix while the homestead. that many of his projects are being instructed by a doctor over enjoying very strong chinook the phone. Now, from the Queen "Poor Diana," says community returns. At Gold River, by mid­ Charlotte Islands, comes a new advisor Tom Rutherford, "She was October, more than one million twist to the old tale - raising coho left with these thousands of egg­ chinook eggs were in the like creatures to care for, and not incubators. The project saw 350 to a clue on how to do it! She had 400 chinook returning - showing just moved from the prairies -it the benefits of enhancement. was totally foreign to her" Salmonid Enhancement Task Rutherford planned to get across Group members saw the success the inlet at critical times, for egg­ when they toured several north picking and ponding, but the island projects October 14 & 15. famed Charlotte's weather had Like most SETG tours, this set a other plans. What to do? fast pace. A visit to IBEC Inc. to see the Atlantic and Pacific The answer came in the form of salmon hatchery operation was the settlement's only reliable followed by a visit to the Kokish communications link, a simple CB project (co-sponsored by Canadian radio. With Diana on one end, Forest Products and IBEC). with her tiny charges, and Tom on There, they saw chinook smolts the other, instructions were given being pen reared to supply future on what to do, how to do it, and broodstock. Then on to the when. Cheslakees operation where the Tom Rutherford, CAJor the Queen Nimpkish Band's old hatchery is Charlotte Islands. presents a "The first time, my 'fish culture in still in operation while planning necklace to Diana Prasol . • a nutshell' talk worked very well," for reconstruction over the next says Rutherford, "But I guess my three to five years. A stop for The Sewall Residents Group - the attempt to explain bulk sampling, lunch (courtesy of Western Forest Gifford family - has been which was relayed through a third Products) at Port McNeil, a quick operating a project for several party, was a bit much: Diana gave visit to Marble River (where Task years at their remote homestead up on it and actually counted Group member Tommy Russell on the west side of Massett Inlet. each and every fry!" has been a volunteer), over to Port A small creek borders their Alice to see coho being held and property and, although the habitat Despite the difficult situation, steelhead fry at a project under is great. the run has dwindled to both Diana and the fry survived the auspices of Crystal Waters Sea three to five returning adults each and, come spring, the juveniles Farms, Western Forest Products fall. The Giffords; parents, were taken - by backpack - to a and the Port Alice Fish and daughter and son-in-law, have release site above a beaver dam. Wildlife Club. Saturday's schedule been incubating eggs from this was topped off with a tour and nearly-extinct run and have also For such devotion - above and salmon barbeque at the Quatse been working on Buckley Bay beyond the call of duty - Diana hatchery. Creek. removing an old wooden was recognized at the QCI dam to improve access for volunteer meeting last June. There "The weather was beautiful," says spawners. she was presented with a Bates, "It was probably the last necklace. The design? An argillite day this year to hold a barbeque!" All was well until last winter carving of a Haida salmon. when the senior Giffords were off On Sunday. the Task Group to holiday in Hawaii and the finished its visit, touring Lynn younger members of the family Broekhuizen's project at Holberg. were working in Port Clements. Highlights Cooperation in Cowichan

"Our chinook target for 1988 was set at 750 thousand eggs, then increased to 925," says Cowichan Band hatchery manager, Doug Millerd, "Then, part way into the season, in response to Fisheries Management. the target was further increased to one and a half million!"

Quite an increase. but the Band did it. They did not, however, do it without help. Everyone is working together in the Cowichan Valley With the chinook counting fence behind him, Cowichan Hatcheryforman these days. As a result, the Lambert Goldsmith tranfers chinook broodstoekjrom the fish trap to chinook rebuilding plan is right on holding pens. From there, a tank truck carries the.fish to the hatchery track. where they ripen in holding ponds. • With the Chinook Initiative as the various groups began looking for enhancement efforts for coho as catalyst and the administrative ways to reverse the trend. When well as chinook assessment. blending of PIP and CEDP as the the Minister announced the Science runs a chinook counting mechanism. the Cowichan Band, Chinook Initiative. it provided a fence on the Cowichan River. SEP Development Division, the way to focus their efforts. The Water flow is managed. through Pacific Biological Station and Cowichan Band hatchery site was cooperation between federal and volunteer groups of the Cowichan ideal for an effort to increase provincial fisheries staff, Valley are hard at work. chinook production. As a result, provincial water management and many SEP staff contributed their Fletcher Challenge. to facilitate The project has increased its expertise to the facility upgrade. chinook sahnon migration. As capacity from a 1986 target of 350 Nitinat also assisted with the Lake well. the counting fence and thousand chinook eggs to this Cowichan chinook net pen associated trap facilitates year's 1.196 million. It is rearing, as did the Cowichan En­ broodstock capture for the CEDP cooperating with PBS (Pacific hancement Society. The pens, project. Biological Station) in chinook needed to meet the increased assessment and coho colonization. production targets. are capable of The fry salvage effort is another And the hatchery is incubating rearing a million smolts. . example of cooperation leading to eggs for the Cowichan Society greater efficiency. The east coast while the society's members work Integration, within SEP, of PIP and of Vancouver Island is plagued on a new site for their own CEDP administration was another with streams that dry up in the incubator. Meanwhile, the society factor. When one community summer, stranding fry. Both the has constructed a coho brood advisor works with both types of Cowichan Band and the Cowichan stock trap on Beaver Creek which project, opportunities for co­ Enhancement Society have carried the Band may use to simplify its operation are easier to identify. out salvage operations over the coho capture. Come summer, the Barry Cordocedo found ways for years. It is, however, a complex groups will operate together in a the various groups to avoid dupli­ operation. The best donor sites. fry salvage program that replaces, cation and, instead, complement where water levels are likely to more efficiently, their previous each other's activities. drop too low, must be identified if independent efforts. What's salvage efforts are to yield behind all this cooperation? Science played a role, too. The maximum benefit. And suitable Cowichan area is the site for some transplant sites must be found, The plight of chinook stocks, for of the Pacific Biological Station's with guidelines on the number of one thing. As it became obvious research and experimental fry that can be released at each. that the decline was serious, New faces, new places; a chart may help With the administrative consolidaticn of PIP and CEDP, and the addition ·>fnew community advisors, there have been some changes over the pc; st few months. We have already seen positive results fiom the new arrangement, but some of you may wonder who is now where. You may w;mt to clip and keep this chart until vou become more familiar with the new structure. A/HEAD Senior CA Senior CA-soum COAST COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT FRASER RIVER, NBC & YUKON Colin Masson CA - LOWER VANCOUVER CA- NORrH SHORE, NORI'H ISLAND Senior CA - NORrH COAST SIDE FRASER TO KANAKA Trevor Morris Gary Taccogna CA - CENTRAL VANCOUVER CA- soum SIDE FRASER TO ISLAND CA- QUEEN CHARLOTI'ES Tom Rutherford BOSTON BAR Bryan Allen Joe Kambeitz CA- NORrHERN VANCOUVER CA - NORrH COAST Barry Peters CA- MISSION/CHILLIWACK ISLAND Maurice Coulter-Boisvert George Bates A/CA- CENTRAL COAST Sandie MacLaurin CA - WEST COAST VANCOUVER CA- CENTRAL INTERIOR ISLAND Dennis Demontier Barry Cordocedo A/CA - PRINCE GEORGE CA- SUNSHINE COAST Sam Gidora Grant McBain

Cowichan Highlight, continued been seen before, they are rare, Seeing double about one in fifty thousand. The Three years ago, at a meeting at odds against actually finding one PBS, an over-all program for fry are extremely remote. salvage operations was developed. It takes something pretty odd to That process, too, was surprise people on the Charlottes. Perhaps Curby should consider characterized by cooperation Islanders are used to strange and buying a lottery ticket? between many groups: Fisheries wonderful stories. But Curby Branch, SEP, PBS and the B.C. Holdershaw, a grade nine student -Peter Schopfer, QCI Ministry of Environment among at Queen Charlotte School, found them. Now the Cowichan Band something that has even the old and the society operate an timers shaking their heads in efficient salvage program under disbelief. A two-headed fish! Stream Talk one contract. Department of Fisheries and Oceans 555 West Hastings Street Curby found it while on a work Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5G3 "The Chinook Initiative was the experience assignment at a small Editorial Director: Colin Masson trigger," says CA Barry Cordocedo. hatchery, "I just looked down and Writer/designer: Dixie Cutler "Then the reorganization of PIP there it was," he said. The coho fry Published for and CEDP made it easier to get has a second head, complete with things working in unison: it lets gills, growing from its side. COMMUNITY you see the whole picture in an area, instead of just parts." The extra head unbalances the INVOLVEMENT fish and it cannot swim well. In Salmonid Enhancement The level of activity, community the wild, it would quickly either be commitment and success in the eaten or die of starvation. But Cowichan Valley shows just how Curby moved the fry to a fish tank valuable working in unison can at the school. There. staff and be. students will try to keep it alive as long as possible. Although two-headed fry have