The Sunshine Coast Salmonid Enhancement Society or SCSES, is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining and building salmon stocks on Chapman creek and facilitating public education regarding salmonid habitat and life cycles.
About Our Organization
Chapman Creek Hatchery was originally built in the early 1980’s as a fish farming incubation and freshwater rearing facility. They produced Coho and Chinook salmon to supply ocean net-pen rearing grow-out sites for the commercial markets. The fish farming ownership went into bankruptcy in the late 1980’s and the hatchery then sat idle for a few years.
1992 the SCSES, with the help of the local community, raised $150,000 to purchased the hatchery. Since that time we have been operating this facility as a community based enhancement hatchery. We work with 4 species of pacific salmon to help with the natural production of Chapman Creek.
We are part of the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP), Public Involvement Program (PIP). All the juvenile salmon we release go to Chapman Creek. This is done so we comply with current federal and provincial regulations.
In the past we used to work with Trout here at the hatchery, from the mid to late 1990’s to 2019.
- Cutthroat Trout – for stocking into the local lakes, this was done in conjunction with the Provincial Government, the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, in 2018 the province took over this task.
- Rainbow Trout – were for sale as U-catch. In 2019, due to a lack of water availability through the summer months coupled with the high creek water temperatures this program was shutdown. (July 2024, we are currently investigating the viability of bringing back the Rainbow Trout to the hatchery, in smaller numbers from what we had the past. We will update this as it progresses.)
- Steelhead Trout – were enhanced on Chapman Creek, mid 1990’s to 2018. This program was canceled by the Provincial Government Fisheries Biologists. Chapman Creek itself continues to sustain a small population of Wild Winter Run Steelhead that return annually to spawn upstream of the Hatchery, in the spring, February through May.
Our maximum annual juvenile salmon production numbers for each species the hatchery releases to Chapman creek are,
- 250,000 Pink salmon. (Enhanced in the odd numbered years only, their dominant adult return years, e.g. – 2021, 2023, 2025, 2027 etc..)
- 90,000 Chum
- 65,000 Chinook
- 50,000 Coho
For 2024 we have released Pink, Coho and Chinook salmon fry and smolts into Chapman Creek. (We had no Chum at the hatchery for this past season.) There they will then make their way out to the ocean to continue their life cycle until they return to spawn in the years ahead.
The hatchery could not operate on the scale that it does without the tremendous efforts of the community, the Chapman Creek Hatchery volunteers, and our two staff. We are always looking for new volunteers, and more information can be found here. Most of all, we could not sustain our production numbers without the on-going, donations of time, gifts-in-kind, and cash donations from many sources such as our members, the general public, SCRD and the District of Sechelt, SC Credit Union, and many local businesses and organizations.
We would like to thank and acknowledge the following organizations for their support through grants.
