It will likely give more juvenile salmon at Squamish’s Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery a fresh start, so to speak.
The hatchery will receive a fishnet full of cash – up to $500,000 from the federal government, which was announced at an event held at the hatchery last Thursday (July 9).
The money will be used for eight new tubs that will be used to hold juvenile and adult salmon. The hatchery’s existing large raceways, or concrete troughs, will also be fixed with a new polyurethane coating so they last longer. The raceways and tubs hold the adult salmon that are captured and the juvenile salmon that are raised until they can be released to back to the wild.
“The eight new 20-foot-diameter circular fiberglass tubs and the resurfacing of the concrete holding ponds will help improve the efficiency and flexibility the hatchery will need to meet future fish production,” said Corino Salomi, the hatchery’s section head for enhancement operations.
John Weston, Member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to sky Country, who made the investment announcement, commended the work of the Tenderfoot Creek Hatchery in contributing to increase fishing opportunities for First Nations, commercial and recreational fishers.
“The environment is the economy,” said Weston in explaining the thinking behind the investment. “The hatchery benefits several important rivers in the Squamish area, including the Mamquam, Ashlu, Elaho and Cheakamus, and Tenderfoot Creek.”
The hatchery, which began in 1981 to bolster salmon stocks for fishing, raises and releases an average of about 3.3 million juvenile salmon a year, according to a news release.
The process at the hatchery involves capture of adult salmon, stripping their eggs and sperm, months of incubation, rearing and when mature enough the salmon smolts are released into the wild.
