2006 news releases

A good catch of summer run chinook ... on camera: New digital system gives hatchery workers a better count
Comox Valley Echo
Fri 18 Aug 2006
Page: A7
Section: News
Source: Comox Valley Echo

Eighteen Chinook have made their up the Puntledge River and into Comox Lake this year. The fish were caught on camera.

To monitor the Summer Run Chinook, underwater cameras have been installed inside fish ladders at three separate locations along the Puntledge River.

The project was led by Fisheries and Oceans, with funding provided by BC Hydro's Bridge Coastal Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program and DFO.

"The project is going very well," says Laurent Frisson, Fish Culturist at the Puntledge Hatchery. "Before, we had to view hours of tape, and even then the likelihood of missing a fish was pretty high."

Rather than cameras running 24/7, the new system incorporates a motion sensor that activates a digital camera and sends the photo directly to a hard drive.

"Now, we're getting a picture of everything that moves through the fish ladders," says Frisson. "We even have an image of a seal going through the Lower Hatchery fish ladder! I'm surprised it didn't get stuck in there!"

Overall, the fish ladders are quite wide, but narrow to a square opening of about two and a half feet where the camera is stationed.

The camera is completely waterproof and sits behind a plexiglass window in a compartment to the side of the enclosure.

As of Aug. 14th, it had been confirmed that 229 Summer Chinook have moved through the Puntledge Diversion Dam fish ladder and into the section of river between the diversion dam and the Comox Dam, 3.7 km upstream.

Another eighteen fish have moved through the fish ladder at Comox Dam and into Comox Lake.

"This is the most fish we've had above the diversion dam since I've been here at the hatchery" says Operations Manager, Brian Munro, who began his career at the hatchery over twenty years ago.

"All of this is done in an attempt to restore the natural salmon runs in the river."

Historically, before human intervention on the river, summer run Chinook took advantage of high river periods to make their way up to the cooler waters of Comox Lake.

After spending the summer in the lake, the Chinook either move further up into the Cruickshank watershed or drop back down into the headpond area of the upper Puntledge.

BC Hydro recently completed three Chinook migration pulse flows over a three- week period to provide a better opportunity for fish to move above river obstacles (falls). The pulses increase the river flow between two and three fold.

With the use of this new monitoring equipment in the tunnels, Fisheries and Oceans now have a much better idea of how the pulse flows are helping with fish migration as well as how the fishways around the dams are functioning.

BC Hydro, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Project Watershed Society and other local community groups are committed to the ongoing improvement of Chinook numbers on the Puntledge River.