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.

Spring 2025 Operations Update

As of late April 2025, the juvenile salmon we have on site are,

• 2,300 Chum fry, to be released to Angus Creek in Porpoise Bay Provincial Park in late May, 2025.
• 1,700 Chum fry, to be released to Chapman Creek in late May, 2025.
• 18,300 adipose fin clipped Coho smolts, to be released to Chapman Creek in either May or June, 2025.
• 66,700 Chinook smolts, to be released to Chapman Creek in either May or June, 2025.
• 45,500 Coho fry, these will be released to Chapman Creek in either May or June, 2026, next year.

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 creek water supply intake pond, new deck boards have been installed and a security gate has been added.
• wheelchair ramps have been 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.

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, 3 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. (2025, 2027, 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. We collected 56,597 eggs.
• Chum (Chapman Creek) returns are below average, 70 fish are estimated spawning in the creek as of mid November, the hatchery tally was 9 with only 2 being females. The first Chum were seen in the creek mid Oct. We collected 1,800 eggs as we only managed to spawn one of the 2 females.
• Chum (Angus Creek) returns are below average, only a few fish are estimated spawning in the creek as of mid November. We collected 2,700 eggs as we only managed to spawn one 1 female.
• 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.

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