Salmon fry return to Victoria's Bowker Creek for first time in nearly a century

Volunteers are rejoicing as salmon fry have successfully emerged from the gravel in an urban B.C. creek for the first time in nearly 100 years.

In January, 28,000 salmon chum eggs were distributed into a gravel bank in Bowker Creek, a waterway on Vancouver Island that runs through Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay. The idea was that by bringing back salmon, the overall health of the creek would improve, which would then improve conditions for salmon, creating a cycle. 

Volunteer Val Aloian visits the creek each day to check the water temperature and depth of the creek. While completing those tasks around 11:30 a.m. PT on March 30, she saw about 100 fry.

"It was miraculous," Aloian told All Points West host Robyn Burns, who said she was so excited she felt like "a new mother."

"I'm handing out cigars," she laughed.

Gerald Harris, director of the Friends of Bowker Creek Society, said it's rare to see chum fry during the day because they tend to only come out at night. He expects more groups will pop up, and many likely already have emerged, but it's impossible to know how many of the 28,000 eggs will be successful.

These salmon won't return to the area for another three to four years, and Harris said it would be great if just 10 made it back. 

"I think one would be happy if you got 25 back. You'd be delighted if it was more than 30."

Harris says Bowker Creek had salmon in it for roughly 6,000 years. It's been suggested that the last time salmon were seen there was in the late 1930s.

Salmon typically hatch in freshwater streams, migrate to the ocean, then return to the same freshwater streams to reproduce.

The urbanization of streams like Bowker Creek has meant a reduction in healthy habitats for the fish. 

The return of fry to the creek reflects, ideally, the increased health of the Salish Sea ecosystem.

The project is a partnership between the Friends of Bowker Creek Society and Peninsula Streams Society, with the help of the Goldstream Hatchery, which provided the eggs. 

Harris says they will do the same in 2023, and again the following year. 

"This hatch shows that, yes, you can incubate chum salmon eggs in the creek," he said.  

But by the time they start again in January, he hopes nearby generators of sediment will be mitigated by the municipality and no longer be a concern — early on in the project, the society was worried about the eggs as they noticed elevated levels of sediment in the waterway, likely coming from nearby construction sites and erosion. 

"It really gives us some motivation," Harris said. 

"It gives the municipalities a motivation to take care of how we handle our rainwater better so that we end up with a healthy stream that then is a healthy part of the Salish Sea catchment area."