volunteers did a great job today getting ready for the Christmas get together at the hatchery tonight. Despite a few hiccups involving blown bulbs and circuit breakdowns, the hatchery is all lit up with coloured lights and a makeshift tree decorated for this evenings gathering. All volunteers are welcome to attend!
Other jobs included the regular tasks of water quality testing, feeding our Coho, recording ATU’s and monitoring our intake.
All current volunteers and their families are invited to join us on Saturday, December 10th, 2011, for our annual Christmas party. We love our volunteers and this is our way of saying thank you for all of the hard work and many hours you put in over the year. We’re so grateful – we love our volunteers !
Each year, we consider the same dilemma – should we buy a real tree or a fake one ? There are lots of positives to buying a real tree from a local farmer or buying an organic one from Bees Knees Christmas trees in Cultus Lake (which is certified salmon safe). This year, you can even rent or buy a real, potted tree from Evergrow in Burnaby.
Some of thebenefits to real Christmas trees include supporting the local economy, reducing greenhouse emissions, and chipping afterwards helps the Port Moody Fire Department’s Burns Fund.
Most fake trees are shipped in from overseas, are made from petroleum based products, PVC and occasionally lead, and many are not recyclable. You would need to use the same fake tree for 20 years to outweigh buying a real tree each year (the lifespan of a fake tree is 7 years) and will take hundreds of years to break down when they reach the landfill. Some apartment buildings ban real trees so if you need to buy a tree from a store, look for American-made trees manufactured using barium.
Within the last few days, vandals sprayed graffiti on the outside Cedar walls of the Hatchery. Police have visited the site, and volunteers on Friday and Saturday have begun the difficult task of cleaning it off. Saturday volunteers also braved the rain to reattach steel mesh to the boardwalk between the Rec. centre and the hatchery to remove trip hazard and cleaned out some junk from within the hatchery and tidied up. Routine jobs were also conducted, such as lab. work, ATU recording and feeding our Wintering Coho.
This Saturday Volunteers set small “bait” traps in our Wintering pond to catch and weigh our young Coho. These fish are from the adult fish that spawned in Fall 2010 and are spending time in fresh water before heading out to sea. In order to accurately determine how much we need to feed these fish, periodic weighings need to be conducted, as food size and volume are constantly adjusted as the fish grow. With all of our egg takes finished for the season things are less busy at the hatchery, however volunteers also conducted bridge monitoring and learned how to record ATU’s of our incubating eggs, and fed our young Coho- things that still need to be done regularly.
One of BC’s most important Salmon Bearing Rivers it at risk.
A large Oil Company has been granted rights to 400,000 hectares of the “Sacred Headwaters” of BC’s Skeena, Nass & Stikine Rivers for the purpose of exploring for coalbed methane gas with the intent of eventual extraction. Exctraction of gas would take place using a process known as hydro-fracturing, or “fracking”, which could be extremely dangerous to all species (especially Steelhead & 5 species of Pacific Salmon) in what the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia has listed as the second most endangered River systems of British Columbia for 2011. Public opposition to this has forced a two year temporary ban on exploration with a possible extension to four years. People who truly care about this wonderful and unique River system- people like YOU are making a difference! The headwaters need your help to remain sacred- or exploration could begin as early as 2012.
To learn more about what is happening in the Sacred Headwaters, and how you can help, read: April Vokey’s “The Sacred Headwaters” article in the Fall 2011 edition of Fly Fusion magazine, on her blog (dated September 25th 2011) at flygal.ca, or email Ben at bmmacka@hotmail.com to receive a copy.
Visit these websites: sacredheadwaters.com & skeenawatershed.com
or talk to Ben at Noons Creek Hatchery, or bmmacka@hotmail.com, or 604-612-5850.
Skeena Catchment Steelhead
Skeena Catchment
Skeena Country
Egg Take Team 2011
A unique and rewarding opportunity for volunteers of Noons Creek Hatchery came in the form of an egg take on site at the Alouette River in Maple Ridge. Volunteers, under the instruction of our Community Advisor all took part in taking eggs from 13 Female Chum Salmon and milt (sperm) from 15 Male Chum Salmon. A cutthroat trout and a large Chinook Salmon made an appearance there providing entertainment for volunteers.
Returning to our hatchery, we carefully fertilized the eggs and prepared them for their incubation in the Heath Trays. this concludes our Chum salmon Egg take for this year, with approximately 90,000 eggs currently incubating. Adult Coho continue to “ripen” at our Hatchery with more egg takes expected in the next few days. PMES would sincerely like to thank our CA, Sandie Hollick-Kenyon and the volunteers of the correctional facility that operate the Alouette Hatchery for this wonderful opportunity!
Sandra Niven - PMES President 2011
Things are busy at the hatchery this week with the return of a large number of Chum salmon spawning in the creek as well as a lot of Coho retrieved from our fish “trap”. 3 Female Coho were stripped of eggs, adding numbers to some fertilized earlier in the week. These eggs are now quietly incubating in the heath trays and are extremely sensitive to any disturbance, so they need to be left alone- at least for a while. A large number of Chum eggs were brought in from Alouette hatchery on Friday and are also currently incubating. PMES members are looking forward to being involved in another Chum Egg take from Alouette next Saturday.
Arriving just a week too early for Halloween, Dave & Ben discovered an eerie apparition in Noons Creek while checking for Salmon activity Sunday Morning. A small side current near the main stem of the Creek created a back eddy of foam rotating slowly in a perfect circle. The “Jack- o – lantern” face within it is also completely natural. Spooky…
The "Ghost" of Noons Creek.
Port Moody Ecological Society attended the Hoy/Scott Creek Watershed Society “Salmon Come Home” event at the Society’s hatchery in Coquitlam. Large numbers of people attended the event on a beautiful sunny day! PMES volunteers represented the Noons Creek Hatchery alongside many other displays from other societies and groups from all over the Lower Mainland. Among the biggest attractions were the Chum Salmon themselves, which put on a great display in the Creek where they paired up and the females were busy making redds (nests), much to the delight of the crowds.
PMES tent at Hoy/Scott Creek
One of the curious visitors checking out the PMES stand!
