From page 2 ban development. No current salmon enhancement program, but two fish ladders were installed in the creek in late °70s and early ’80s. © Mosquito Creek: has two creek tributaries: Wagg and Thain; supports coho and chum salmon and some cutthroat and steelhead trout. Water quality: affected by resi- dential development and heavy flood damage above the Upper Levels Highway. No current major salmon enhancement program, but North Vancouver School District 44 school students are currently releasing some coho fry into Mosquito and Mackay creeks. © Mackay Creek: supports coho, pink and chum salmon; some steelhead and a good popu- lation of cutthroat trout; escape- ment of Mackay Creek coho reached over 100 in the mid-1980s. Average coho escapement now is around 200. Water quality: adversely af- fected by commercial industrial plants in lower areas and by heavy residential development its entire length. Salmon enhancement includes salmon incubation boxes and con- struction of a fish ladder at Ridgewood Drive by North Shore Fish and Game Club. ¢ Brothers Creek: part of the Capilano River system; presence of coho, pink, chum and chinook salmon and steelhead, cutthroat and rainbow trout; escapement of coho and chum reached 253 and 160, respectively, in mid-1980s; escapement of pink and chinook salmon reached 64 and 93, respec- tively, during the same period. Water quality: affected by heavy residential and urban de- velopment. Has no current salmon enhancement project. As with most West Vancouver streams, which are relatively short, culverts have reduced the habitable area “for fish. It is difficult, therefore, for fish to get beyond Marine Drive in most West Vancouver creeks. * Rodgers Creek: supports some coho, chum salmon and cut- throat trout. Chum and coho enhancement programs began in 1980s. In 1986, a salmon enhancement program involving West Vancouver school students and the DFO resulted in salmon returning to the creek for the first time in about 20 years. Annual coho escapement averages about 20. Chum salmon were also rumored to have returned to the creek this year. @ Cypress Creek: supports limited populations of coho salm- on and cutthroat trout; maximum 3 “ ae eZ ra CHUM SALMION Oncorhynchus keta ca in SALMON HABFFAT LEGEND | Coho saimon Chinook salmon Trout Chum saimon Pink salmon | Sockeye salmon Enhancement project 5 10 KILOMETERS coho escapement in the mid-’80s: 12 Water quality has suffered from dredging below Marine Drive. Heavy flood problems and upper watershed degradation have also damaged Cypress Creek’s ability to support fish. Has no current salmon enhancement program. : © Eagle Creek: supports trace populations of coho, chum salm- on; cutthroat and steelhead trout; maximum coho and chum salmon escapement from 1976 to 1985: seven and six, respectively. Water quality adversely affected by urban development and prob- lems with sewage line leakage in late 1980s. A large section of the stream has also been placed in a culvert, making it difficult for fish to spawn. Eagle Creek has no major salmon enhancement program, but West Vancouver schools are cur- rently releasing salmon fry into the creek. ¢ Nelson Creek: has one tribu- =n eal Z — #. Graphics Fisherios & Oceans Canada Wednesday, December 12, 1990 — North Shore News - Seymour Lake f Capilano Lake EINE tary: Whyte Creek; supports small populations of coho, chum salm- on; cutthroat and steeflead trout. Dredging in 1967 eliminated the lower 250 feet of the creek, and as a result salmon can only enter the creek when ocean tides are above 14 feet. West Vancouver District uses Nelson Creek water for emergency water supply. The water is piped from a small spillway just above the Upper Levels Highway. Nelson also receives water from the district’s Eagle Lake reservoir. The level of the lake was raised in 1979 to increase its capacity. The district is now considering diverting Nelson Creek into Eagle Lake to maximize the water col- lection af the lake for the increas- ing West Vancouver population. Salmon enhancement programs began in early 1980s; salmon in- cubator boxes were built on Nelson and Rodgers creeks by West Vancouver secondary stu- dents; approximately 200,000 coho and chum salmon eggs hatched in the two creeks under the program. CHINOOK SALMON Oncorhynchus tshawytscha / fe. oP (i Buntzen Lake NEWS graphic Lorraine Wareham The main North Shore rivers: ® Seymour River: has !2 creek tributaries, including Maplewood, First Lake, Hydraulic, Patton, Vicar Lake, Gibbens, Burwell, Fannin, Orchid, Belfour, Shera and Clipper. Supports all varieties of salmon, except sockeye, and populations of cutthroat and steelhead trout. Maximum escapement from 1976 to 1985: coho, 14,000; pink, 1,000; chum, 800; chinook, 300. The river’s hatchery, initially established in 1977 by BCIT, was taken over as a community-run operation in 1987. The Seymour Saimonid Society now annually rsieases 100,000 chinook, 60,000 coho, 70,000 winter and summer run steelhead trout and 100,000 chum salmon. This year it will release between 5,000 and 10,000 cutthroat trout. The hatchery also releases about 100,000 pink salmon every two years. As of mid-1989, the Seymour Salmonid Society had released over 540,000 fish into the river. at ye be, { River water quality is affected by the Seymour Falls Dam, which was built in 1961 to create the Seymour reservoir. The Seymour River dam and the Cleveland Dam on the Capilano River have both had a tremendous impact on river fish habitats. Not only have they reduced the habitable area avail- able for fish, but they have stop- ped the natural flow of gravel from the upper ta the lower reaches of the rivers. Female salmon dig nests and lay their eggs in gravel. Seymour River is also subject to heavy sports fishing. ¢ Capilano River: has 14 creek tributaries, including Brothers, Houl Gate, Crown, Fellowes, Nickey, Sisters, Dean, Healmond, East Cap, Hesketh, Enchantment, Hanover, Andrews and Windsor. Primarily a coho salmon river, with some pink, chum and chinook salmon, steelhead, cut- throat and rainbow trout, Dolly Varden (a char member of the salmonid family), sculpins (bultheads) and lampreys (eeis). The Cleveland Dam was buili on the river from 1952 to 1954. The Capilano River hatchery was established in 1971. Highest recorded coho return to the hatchery thus far has been ap- proximately 50,000 in 1988." Highest coho return previous to 1988 was 42,400 in 1979. Approx- imately 15,000 coho returned to the river this year. But attempts to establish a chinook run in the river have been largely unsuccessful. The highest chinook return to the river was 2,300 in 1979. Only 105 chinook returned to the river this year. Capilano chinook returns have been limited by factors ranging from low river water levels in the fall to the general depletion of chinook stocks in Georgin Strait. But a program of raising Capilano hatchery chinook in seapens was initiated in 1985 and began in earnest in 1987, when 300,000 chinook smolts were transferred to seapens located in Deep Cove, Burrard Inlet and In- dian Arm. Under the program, salmon smolts are raised in the pens for periods ranging from a week to a month or mere before being released. The program allows the fish to acclirnatize to salt water. Young chinook traditionally suffer the highest mortality rate when they first move from fresh to sait water. 1990 is the first year in which chinook from the 1987 seapen release are expected to return. Thus far results have been disap- pointing. This year over 2.5 million chinook were released from the seapens. © Indian River: drains into the head of Indian Arm; supports populations of pink, chum, coho, chinook and sockeye salmon and steelhead, cutthroat and rainbow trout, and small numbers of Dolly Varden. Four spawning channels were constructed in the river in the late 1980s. The river has strong pink and chum salmon runs.