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PAGE 39

THE Seymour River fish hatchery could be closed by the
end of August pending possible federal budget cuts and a
Fisheries and Oceans re-evaluation of the operation.

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“Ivs a real shame,”’ hatchery
worker Earl Plain said Thursday.
“*] just can't believe it.”

The hatchery, which BCIT
established in 1977 with a $23,500
federal government grant, releases
about 40,000 coho salmon smolts
and about 80,000 steelhead trout
into the river annually.

Located below the Seymour
River dam about 14 kilometres
past the Rice Lake watershed gate,
it employs a full-time staff of
three, including a manager and
two staff members, and another
employee for two-thirds of the
year.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada
spokesman Colin Masson said the
current hatchery contract will ex-
pire at the end of August, ‘‘which
should give us time to evaluate the

options we have involving a
number of operational issues that
must be resolved.”*

The ministry, in the face of
possible budget cuts to the
Salmonoid Enhancement Program
(SEP), must determine the vatue of
the present facility and whether the
estimated $180,000 needed to
rebuild the hatchery so it can meet
present annual production of
170,000 coho eggs, 50,000 chinook
eggs and 60,000 steelhead trout
eges will be available.

The Seymour River hatchery is
currently allotted $140,000 annuai-
ly through SEP.

Masson said the ministry must
decide what kind of facility is
needed on the river, the future
scope of that facility and if pro-
duction targets can be achieved if
upgrading is not possible.

He said other problems such as

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

quality and quantity of hatchery
water must also be improved,
especially during periods of tow
water levels in the river.

“We had some mortality last
year (at the hatchery) when the
water level was low,’” Masson said.
‘*And we believe the risk is not ac-
ceptable.”

He added that the ministry thus
far did not know what funds
would be available through SEP.

“It's a very important hatch-
ery,"’ BCIT Wildlife and Recre-
ation Management faculty member
Roger Reisen said Friday. ‘‘It has
increased the river’s steelhead
population tremendously.”’

Reisen said the hatchery, which
was built by BCIT students, is also
Qoerating a number of salmon
rearing pens in the Deep Cove
area.

Reisen added that a lot of area
schools regulary tour the facility as
part of salmon awareness and
other programs.

The hatchery is also planning to
enhance the river’s chum and ork
salmon stocks,

Variety of fish species in the
Seymour, Masson said, is much
greater than that of the Capilano,
which produces primarily coho and
chinook salmon and a= smaller
nuniber of steelhead trout.

Increased public access to the
Seymour River area that will ac-
company the 1988 opening of the
Lower Seymour Demonstration
Forest, he said, could put a greater
strain on river fish stocks. *