Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rodney]

Our busy season is fast approaching and we have several events coming up we'd greatly appreciate a hand with. The dates, number of people needed, and duration of the events are posted below. If you would like to help out, just send me an email specifying which event you'd like to attend.

Hope you can make it!

Week of April 21st to 25th - Chum Release
We are probably going to try to squeeze in a chum release at some point this coming week. If you'd like to come please send me an email and I will let you know the date! It's a small release of about 40,000.

Start Time: 10 am at the hatchery
End Time: ~2 pm
Volunteers Needed: 2 or 3

April 27th - Chum Release at Maplewood Farm
We'll be releasing 25,000 chum into Maplewood Creek. This is a free event open to the public. Volunteers will be needed to weigh and load the chum into the truck in the morning and help with the release itself (directing people, counting visitors, etc).

Start Time: 9 am at the hatchery
End Time: ~12-1 pm at Maplewood Farm
Volunteers Needed: 4-5

Everyone is welcome to attend the event at Maplewood Farm. Fry-releases start at 11 am and will last until all the fry are gone! It's a great event for the kids. Bring your own bucket if you'd like!

April 30th - Individual Sampling of Coho
Prior to release, the coho are assessed for several factors. We'll need a hand seining the coho and recording the data.

Start Time: 9 am at the hatchery
End Time: 3 pm
Volunteers Needed: 1 or 2

May 6th, 7th, and 8th - Individual Sampling of Steelhead
Just like the coho, the steelhead need to be assessed prior to release. We can usually do 2 ponds per day (6 ponds over 3 days).

Start Time: 9 am at the hatchery
End Time: 3 pm
Volunteers Needed: 1 or 2 each day

May 13/14/15/16 - Steelhead Release
On two out of these four days we will be doing our major steelhead release. Volunteers will be needed at the hatchery to load the steelhead into the transport truck and help with the release on the river. I'll let everyone know the exact dates once the dates for the transport truck have been confirmed.

Start Time: 9 am at the hatchery
End Time: 3:30 pm (maybe a bit later)
Volunteers Needed: 4 or 5 on each day of releases

June 15th - Family Fishing Day at Rice Lake
Everyone's favorite hatchery event! There will be a BBQ, free fishing, prizes, and lots of exhibitors and cool stuff going on. We'll need volunteers to help out with lots of different things. Details will be coming soon!

Matt Casselman, Volunteer Coordinator
Seymour Salmonid Society
volunteering@seymoursalmon.com
604-640-9690

[Rodney]

Hi all volunteers,

Our dates for steelhead releases were finally confirmed this morning as the 13th and 14th. On each day we will need 4 or 5 people to help seine the fish and load them into the truck. While the truck drives down to the lower river some people can go with the truck or stay at the hatchery to do the usual business.

Once the steelhead are released we will only have winter-run adults left to spawn as well as coho and steelhead fry to pond into the troughs.

One last point, the hatchery is hiring for our seasonal position, tell all your friends! Details can be found here:

http://seymoursalmon.com/Job%20Posting.htm

Thanks everyone,

Matt Casselman
Volunteer Coordinator
Seymour Salmonid Society
volunteering@seymoursalmon.com
604 640 9690

[Rodney]

On Monday July 28th we are doing a seine of the hatchery pool. We have already made arrangements for a group to join us and have enough people. However, regular volunteers are welcome to join us.

10 am start at the hatchery.

Matt Casselman
Volunteer Coordinator
Seymour Salmonid Society
volunteering@seymoursalmon.com
604 640 9690

[Rodney]

The first set of coho are all grown up and ready to be fin clipped. For those that don't know, we remove the adipose fin from all our coho and steelhead to mark them as hatchery fish. We usually start in July but the cold spring pushed everything back by about 3 weeks.

We'll be clipping all Sunday August 10th. Start at 9 am and end at 3pm. There's room for 6 people. It would be best if everyone could stay the whole day. I'm hoping to do 10,000!

Please contact the hatchery if interested:

Matt Casselman
Volunteer Coordinator
Seymour Salmonid Society
volunteering@seymoursalmon.com
604 640 9690

[Rodney]

August 12 - Old Dam Pool seine - Just like the hatchery pool seine, but somewhere else on the river. There's a little bit of walking involved. 9:30 - 10 am start. The more the merrier.

August 13 and 15 - Snorkel Survey - There is a record numbers of steelhead in the river this year. Lots of fish to see. If you are interested in joining us but have not done a snorkel survey before, please email me so I can give you the details. Unfortunately you'll have to be at least 5'10" as our drysuits only come in large.

Please email or phone Matt (see contact info above) if interested. Please don't email me (Rodney) regarding these.

[Stratocaster]

August 12 - Old Dam Pool seine - Just like the hatchery pool seine, but somewhere else on the river. There's a little bit of walking involved. 9:30 - 10 am start. The more the merrier.

August 13 and 15 - Snorkel Survey - There is a record numbers of steelhead in the river this year. Lots of fish to see. If you are interested in joining us but have not done a snorkel survey before, please email me so I can give you the details. Unfortunately you'll have to be at least 5'10" as our drysuits only come in large.

Please email or phone Matt (see contact info above) if interested. Please don't email me (Rodney) regarding these.

Wow! Brian will sure be busy that week.  Our group is helping him Seine the Hatchery Pool on the 14th

[Rodney]

The second batch of coho is ready to fin clip. Last Sunday we managed to do an entire trough (15,205 fish!). Maybe we can do the same this Sunday.

There's room for 5 people at the table. Start time at 9 am and it would be great if everyone could stay the whole day.

Please email or phone Matt (see contact info above) if interested. Please don't email me (Rodney) regarding these.

[Rodney]

We are clipping again this Sunday the 24th. Email volunteering@seymoursalmon.com if you'd like to join us! 9am to 3pm. It's better if you can stay the whole day. First come first serve!

[Rodney]

Well it was another successful day of clipping at the hatchery. Over 14,000 fish were clipped, but there are still more to go!

This week we are going to try to clip on Thursday (28th) and Saturday (30th). The same routine as usual, 9 am to 3 pm and it would be great if you could stay the whole day. There is space for 6 volunteers on Thursday and 7 on Saturday. Hopefully that will finish off the coho!

If you've wanted to come up, but haven't gotten a chance yet, please email Matt. Thanks to everyone that's helped so far.

[Rodney]

There's still 5 more spots for fin clipping on Saturday. If you'd like to come, please let Matt know by Thursday night. He'll be out of town Friday.

[Rodney]

The coho have all been clipped and the left-overs released. There are only steelhead left now and the first batch has been ready to go for a little while. FIn clipping for the steelhead is planned for these dates:

Fin Clipping - September 11th, 13th, and 21st

Today we seined the hatchery pool with the BCIT Fish and Wildlife students. Our coho run has finally decided to show itself and I'm feeling a little bit better about the numbers. Up until today we had only handled about 30 coho but that's now 180! BCIT will be back at the hatchery pool in 2 weeks but we'd like to seine the old dam pool in the meantime. So...

Old Dam Pool Seine - September 18th

Contact Matt if interested.

[Rodney]

On October 24th (this Friday) the hatchery will be heading back to the Alouette for day 2 of our chum egg takes. Wednesday was pretty successful with a full trap and 50 females worth of eggs taken for the Seymour. We're hoping to have a repeat on Friday.
 
We'll meet at 8 am at the hatchery truck on the North Shore or you can meet us on the Alouette at 9 am. We should be done at the Alouette around 12 - 1pm. Back on the North Shore at 1:30 - 2:30pm, and done at the hatchery between 3 and 4pm. Rain gear/waders provided.

Our next trip to the Alouette will be on November 3rd, possibly moved earlier if the chum numbers start to get low.
 
E-mail volunteering@seymoursalmon.com if you are interested!

[Rodney]

Hi everyone,
 
This Thursday we are thinking about getting in the river for the LAST seine of the season. We'll be doing the hatchery pool. Hopefully we can mark some more fish for our population study. If you are interested please send me an email. 9 am start at the hatchery.
 
We are also out in the creeks looking for carcasses almost every day now. Anyone can come up and help during the weeks or on weekends.

E-mail volunteering@seymoursalmon.com if you are interested!

[Rodney]

Annual General Meeting This Wednesday November 26th

Just a reminder that the Society's AGM will be held this Wednesday November 26th at 7:30 pm at Canlan Ice Sports (2411 Mount Seymour Parkway). Derek Bonin of Metro Vancouver is our guest speaker and will be discussing the approaches Metro Vancouver is taking to sustain salmon on rivers where drinking water reservoirs exist.

The AGM is also a great time to join or renew your membership to the Seymour Salmonid Society. Your $10 membership fee will give you a 1-year membership and special privileges within the Society. All membership fees will go directly towards the Society's education and fish culture programs.

600,000+ Chum Eggs Incubating at the Hatchery

With the help of volunteers and BCIT students the hatchery was able to collect about 620,000 chum eggs from the Alouette River in Maple Ridge. That's 155 kilograms of fish eggs!

The chum have also been coming back to the Seymour River in respectable numbers. A few surveys on Maplewood Creek – just behind Maplewood Farm – have turned up almost 100 adults. The run is over now but the numbers are far better than the two adults that turned up in the creek last year.

River Float Last Thursday for Steelhead

The visibility in the water was rather poor, but staff still saw lots of fish! The unofficial count of summer-run steelhead seen on the float is 55. Of those 55 fish, just 2 were radio-tagged. We have 20 radio-tagged fish in the river – meaning the survey team only saw 1 in 10 fish! The current estimate of the summer-run steelhead return is about 250, roughly 2.5 times the typical Seymour River return.

Winter Volunteering Opportunities

With the coho back and spawning in the creeks hatchery staff are out walking the banks looking for spawned-out adults. If you are interested in helping out with carcass recoveries, you can join staff at the hatchery almost any day of the week. Staff also check and spawn the coho broodstock every Thursday. As always, email volunteering@seymoursalmon.com if you would like to help out.

[Rodney]

Hatchery staff and the BCCF crew are going to try to get in the river on Friday for a snorkel survey. Unfortunately this opportunity is not open to everyone as the drysuits that the hatchery owns are sizes L and XL. You must be at least 5'10" to fit in a drysuit. All other equipment is also provided.

We will start around 9 am and be finished by 2-3pm.

E-mail volunteering@seymoursalmon.com if you are interested!