Colquitz River Fish Fence: Community Volunteers Work to Save Wild Salmon

Colquitz fish trap being checked
Volunteers check the fish trap while community members look on.

Update Dec 17 to counts.

It’s been a tough autumn this year at the Colquitz River fish counting fence. Community volunteers, carrying on the legacy of the Colquitz Salmonid Stewardhip & Education Society, have been tracking the returning salmon – primarily coho – and giving them a boost upstream to preferred spawning grounds. It has proved to be a very poor year for returning coho.

The numbers from Oct 3 to Dec 7, when the fence was removed:

coho males 29
coho females 89
coho jacks 193
chum 1
cutthroat trout 2
mort, coho female 1
Total 315

 

At mid-December 2014, the count was:

coho males 508
coho females 820
coho jacks 221
cutthroat trout 7
smolts 3
chinook 1
mortalities 4
unknown, seen going round the fence 20
Total 1584

A grim year for returns.

Netted fish at Colquitz River fish trap.
Fish netted to be tracked and placed upstream.
Fish netted at Colquitz River fish trap.
More fish netted at the fish trap.