wena pene gt nce & Meet ppp ee NAR a ee nee Sa tae WEATHER: Friday through Sunday, mainly sunny with a few cloudy periods. oe DINING: 51 New French restaurant breaks with tradition. TRAVEL: Despite the summer clouds, London is the 3- Friday, July 12, 1985 - North Shore News For Pt. Atkinson ‘Friday - 50 place ta be this year. A PORTION OF the Capilono River's early run coho: bounty is proudly dislayed by Capilano fish hatchery worker Bill Krause. Experimentation with cross-breeding of various spawn groups and runs carried out by the hatchery over the past three years has resulted in a strong early return of coho salmon to the Capilano River this year. JUDGE TELLS TRIAL Band exceeded IN. FINDING members guilty of illegal two Squamish Indian band fishing and _ illegal possession of salmon, Judge Reg Grandison ruled that the Squamish band exceeded its authority. Mike Lewis, 24, of Squamish and Floyd Joseph, 31, of Victoria originally faced seven counts each under section 61.1 of the federal Fisheries Act in con- nection with an incident that took place September 10, 1984 in tidal waters of the Capilano River. Four counts against Lewis and Joseph were dismissed February 26 of this vear, but on Tuesday, Judge Gran- dison found L.:-wis guilty of unlawful possession of fish and Joseph guilty « f ‘ishing for salmon without a acence, “Tims” Ht/Ft. 12, 9100 13.8 0850 5.1. “1640 12.3 ns 1 13.6.0. Entertainment....... 49 Mailbox.............7 Real Estate.........13 ; 4.2. a What's Going On.... .53, Research ensures future of salmon RESEARCH is ensuring the future of North Shore salmon populations. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW While research at the Capilano River hatchery and West Vancouver Fisheries Research laboratory has un- covered new information in- to salmon run control and growth acceleration, a fish rearing project in Horseshoe Bay is returning responsibil- ty for helping revive local fish resources to private citi- zens. Three years of experimen- tation with the Capilano River’s coho salmon spawn- ing habits, spearheaded by the Capilano hatchery’s manager Eldon Stone, has increased the river’s early coho return ten-fold. ‘*We’ve never had close to 100 fish in hatchery traps during the whole of June since the hatchery was open- ed. in 1971,’’ says Stone, ‘‘and already we've got 1000.” Stone, along with the seven Capilano Hatchery staff, has beén cross breeding early run fish with early spawn fish, early run fish with late spawn fish, and fate run fish with late spawn fish. Previous to this experiment, eggs and spawn from all runs have been mixed together, resulting in what Stone calls the classic bell curve of heavy salmon runs in late July and August and virtually none in early spring. “The coho run has not really been increased,’’ ex- plains Stone, ‘‘just stretched out.”” . Though recent hot ishing auth fishing at a time not authorized, and fishing for salmon with @ gilinet during a closed time. Defence counsel Harry Slade argued that band bylaw 10.6, which allows natives to catch as many salmon as they want by any means they want excluding weather has slowed Capilano River flow to a_ trickle preventing fish from making their way up its length for the time being, ramifications of the experiment are far reaching and dramatic, says Ted Perry, Biological Coor- dinator for Salmon Enhancement Program (SEP). An immediate benefit of this run control experiment, he says, is that high quality coho, which usually spawn in November, can be made to return to the Capilano River through the summer months. a Out of the 200 fish analyzed at the Capilano hatchery to date, 65 per cent are early run, early spawn cross. ‘ ‘“‘The experiment seems to bee. out theories that run timing is genetically inher- ited, Perry says.’’ Dr. Ed Donaldson, Sec- tion Head for the West Van- couver Fisheries Research Lab, says research into sterilization of female coho, begun several years ago, has resulted in their remaining in ocean waters four and five years instead of returning to spawn after three. The fish therefore grow larger and can be caught by commercial fishermen rather than retur- ning to the Capilano River to be sold to processors as excess fish. Perry explains that only a small number of coho, ap- proximately 2,000, are need- ed to provide the spawn for _ the Capilano river run. Since construction of the Capilano dam, much of the original explosives, over-rode the Fisheries Act. Judge Grandison pointed out, however, that the fed- eral Indian Act authorized bands te pass bylaws for the conservation of fish and wildlife within reservations, but unrestriced fishing of salmon did not accord with a salmon spawning river bed is now inaccessible to salmon, says Perry, ‘‘most of the - river below the dam is bar- ren as far as salmon spawn- ing is concerned.’’ Rich in coho. through hatchery production, excess fish, often running to be- tween 20-30,006 fish, are sold off to fish processors. — Follov‘ing the success of its coho sterilization pro- gram, the West Vancouver fisheries research lab, says Donaldson, is exploring the use of DNA molecules in ac- celerating salmon growth, Dan Sewell, chairman of B.C.’s sport fishing advisory board ard owner of Sewell’s Marina in Horseshoe Bay, has combined fish knowl- edge culled from. three generations of Sewell in- volvement in B.C. sport fishing with Horseshoe Bay marina facilities to add the ‘pioneering hat of aquaculturist to the many he wears already. In B.C.’s first privately funded salmon rearing and release operation, Sewell has taken 30,000 coho salm- on fry from the Capilano River hatchery and begun raising them in enclosed pens at his marina. Capital costs of the pro- ject thus far have been $12,000 with an additional cost of $4,000 for fish feed. Sewell says the process of obtaining the one-year fish farming licence through fed- eral Fisheries was an involv- ed one, but with $7 million being put into Gulf of Georgia coho stocks by the federal government for Ex- po tourists, and the general push to improve sport fish- : See page 4 : orit rational support of that con- servation. The judge found Joseph used a canoe and gillnet to catch 82 salmon from the mouth of the Capilano River, and that Lewis helped load and transport the fish. The two will be sentenced Sept. 3.