Sunshine Coast Salmonid Enhancement Society

The Sunshine Coast Salmonid Enhancement Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining and building salmon stocks in local waterways and facilitating public education regarding salmonid habitat and life cycles.

Winter 2024/25 Operations Update

As of late Dec 2024, we have incubated, reared, and released to the creek in 2024,

• 107,000 Pink fry released in 3 groups, Feb 21, Mar 20, Apr 3, 2024
• 22,000 adipose fin clipped Coho smolts released on 2 dates, May 18 & 23, 2024
• 14,000 Chinook smolts released on May 30, 2024

Hatchery projects –

• the big viewing deck beside the creek has been rebuilt, wheelchair access was added, the old deck was built in the 1980’s and was rotting.
• our accessway bridge for the hatcheries intake pond, new deck boards have been installed and a security gate is being added soon.
• wheelchair ramps will be installed at both ends of the small bridge beside the adult fish trap.
• the deck on the main hatchery building has been rebuilt, new posts, deck boards and railings.
• the exterior of the Workshop and Oxygen storage buildings were painted.
• A new covered picnic area is being worked on along with upgrades to the hatcheries Education Building.

Currently, we are holding over 18,000 Coho fry at the hatchery, where they will remain until May or June 2025. In October, these Coho had their adipose fins clipped, this will identify them as “hatchery Coho”. Sport fishers are permitted to retain hatchery Coho, while those caught with their adipose fins intact are considered wild and must be released unharmed.

In July 2024 our new backup generator was commissioned by the supplier and is now fully operational, from this point forward the pumped groundwater used for fish rearing will continue to flow in the event of any power failures.

This past summer and fall’s adult returns to the creek and hatchery along with incubation from spawning-

• Pink – a high number of adults returned this past season, over 2,000. The even year returns are non-dominant and numbers are normally low, 0 to as many as 60 fish on average. For instance, 2 years ago in 2022 a total of 9 adults were counted. This past season the first Pinks showed up in the creek the last week of July, 2024. We did not collect any Pink eggs this past season, this is due to Dept of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) hatchery regulations, only odd year collection is allowed for Chapman creek. (2023, 2025, etc.).
• Coho returns in 2024 rivaled some of the highest recorded, numbers as late Dec are 2,000+ with 745 of these returning to the hatchery’s adult trap. The first Coho were seen in the creek mid August. Currently we are incubating 56,597 eggs. These will be released to the creek in May or June 2026.
• Chum returns are below average, 70 fish are estimated spawning as of mid November, the hatchery tally was 9 with only 2 being females. The first Chum were seen in the creek mid Oct. Currently we are incubating 1,669 eggs, we only managed to spawn one of the 2 females. These will be released to the creek in June 2025.
• Chinook returns to the creek were slightly below average, a total of 9 fish were seen. The first Chinook adult was seen in the creek the second week of Sept. Chinook are not native to Chapman Creek and are introduced annually as smolts. 70,424 eyed Chinook eggs arrived here in mid November from the Chilliwack River Hatchery in the Lower Mainland’s Fraser Valley. These are currently being incubated, they will be released to the creek in May or June 2025.

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