FOLLOWING decades of declining numbers of spawning pink salmon on Canada’s West Coast, a recovery program has resulted in returning salmon numbers not seen since the 1960s.
According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a pink salmon recovery program initiated in 1985 has proven to be a startling success.
The program saw biologists and engineers from the Salmonid Enhancement Program (SEP) develop a plan to restore spawning grounds in the Squamish River.
From autumn 1985, many millions of pink salmon eggs were collected in the Indian and Squamish rivers, incubated at the Tenderfoot Creek Salmon Hatchery and planted as eyed eggs into the gravel beds or released as fry into restored side-channels of the Squamish watershed.
By the 1990s, the pink salmon returns to the Squamish River had noticeably strengthened, and pink salmon were once again spawning in several other rivers.
This much improved situation culminated with pink salmon returns in the Squamish approaching record levels in 2013.
Read the full story at: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sep-pmvs/pink2013-rose2013-eng.html
