Chinook Spawning Bed Installed Above Weir
100 tons of washed gravel was added to an existing chinook salmon spawning area just above the weir on the south side of Cowichan River on June 7. The purpose was to increase both the quality and area of the bed which consisted of pea gravel and sand – very marginal spawning habitat. Cowichan chinooks are on the decline again after more than a decade of strong returns. Only 1100 spawned last fall, a record low. Although the amount of spawning habitat is not a factor limiting chinook production, it was felt that improvement at this site would benefit the early run which is now nearly extinct and aid overall production. Lake outlets are ideal locations for spawning beds because of a stable supply of clean water and a rich food supply for emerging fry in the form of zooplankton (tiny animals that live near the surface of the lake). The weir spawning bed is the first place chinooks spawn in the Cowichan River and the only known location where early run fish spawn. These fish were formerly much more abundant than fall run fish and spawned in several Cowichan Lake tributaries like Shaw, Nixon, Sutton and Meade Creeks and Robertson River. There are probably less than 100 left from a population that was likely more than 100,000 prior to the early 1900’s.
The gravel was hauled up from Butler Brother’s pit near Duncan, loaded onto Wayne Robertson’s barge near Ashburnham Beach and towed almost to the site with a small tug. The water was too shallow for the tug to get the barge right to the site so it had to be lined down for the last 100 m and coaxed into place with an outboard. The gravel was then shovelled overboard by a seven-person crew consisting of Wayne and Owen Robertson, Philip Lorenson, Doug Blake, Chris Davis, Gord Neva and Ted Burns. Funding, equipment and materials for the project were provided by Norske Canada, Butler Brothers, South Shore Industries and the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
Ted Burns
Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society
Summer, 2004.
Lake Cowichan Gazette
Photos
Photo : Loading gravel onto the barge at Wayne Robertson’s barge landing near Ashburnham Beach – Owen Robertson operator.
Photo : Towing the load to the site
Photo : 100 tons of gravel
Photo : Shovelling the gravel onto the spawning bed
Tags: s old barge put to use, Wayne