June 6, 2013 – Almost 800km to visit six Vancouver Island hatcheries over four days. A chunk of that on rough and dusty logging roads. And almost all of it sunny. Can’t ask for more than that for a working road trip.
Have I mentioned that I love my job?
I am on the technical committee for a project that will see the Snootli Creek Hatchery in Bella Coola go through a complete rebuild to the tune of $20+ million dollars. It’s an amazing opportunity to be involved in a project that will take the best ideas from all of the other major Salmon Enhancement Program facilities, consider ways to maximize fish health during culture, allow a thoughtful consideration of people flow, water flow, and fish flow within the facility, investigate all of the leading edge technology, build in maximum flexibility, and a plethora of other things.
I flew to the Island on Monday morning and was picked up at the other end by a colleague and we headed up Island. While the Puntledge River Hatchery wasn’t on our agenda, we stopped in so I could drop something off for one of the staff, and while we were visiting with the management, two of the Bella Coola members of our group showed up. So we took advantage of everyone’s presence and had a good look at the workings and layout of pretty much everything on the facility.
(The obligatory shot of a BC Ferry from my float plane)
(Point Atkinson from the air)
Next stop was Campbell River for the night, where we all sort of went different directions for the evening. It was a beautiful night and I grabbed fish & Chips and enjoyed the quiet of a picnic table in the park at the edge of the ocean. Then it was in to call it an early evening. The next days were going to be busy and involve a lot of milage.
Tuesday morning two of us picked up our final traveling companion, and ring leader, at the airport. Then it was off to Quinsam River Hatchery for the morning. Quinsam Hatchery is just in the final stages of a major rebuild and has had some amazing, and also some complicated, upgrades. It is a fabulous hatchery and has wonderful staff. There is so much that goes on at this facility, and I always enjoy seeing the innovations that have been developed for fish culture and love hearing about the research projects that are being collaborated on or done in-house. Part of the rebuild is a gorgeous public display room, for visitors, that tells the story of salmon in the Campbell River area. What was neat was to find some of my own photos immortalized on the walls! While we were on our tour, the manager of the last site we were to be visiting showed up to join us. He is also a part of the committee and wanted to see the same things we did.
From Quinsam we headed South to Rosewall Creek Hatchery. Rosewall was built as a science research site and when I first visited the site back in the late 1980’s it was still in use as such. Later it changed hands within DFO and became part of the Qualicum Project trio of facilities. It is strictly a well water site, and houses three threatened stock projects – the Cultus Lake sockeye captive brood program, the Sakinaw Lake sockeye captive brood program, and the Puntledge Summer Chinook adults are brought here to hold on the colder water until they are ready to be spawned.
After Rosewall we were scheduled to head for Parksville for the night, but we still had time in the afternoon so we headed for Big Qualicum River hatchery and had a great tour there. We are looking at everything from fish holding, to egg preparation areas, to incubation rooms, offices, workshops, various equipment innovations, and everything in between. Big Q is one of the most amazing projects in SEP and represents a fantastic engineering project. The entire valley and the lake above were engineered more than 40 years ago.
Late in the afternoon I realized I’d been unsuccessful in avoiding the sun all day, and regretted forgetting to pack sunscreen. The first sunburn of the season. Not a terrible one, but a sunburn nonetheless. It wasn’t until the next morning that I discovered a tube of sunscreen stuffed down in a pocket in my backpack. Duh!
We spent the night in Parksville and had dinner at an awesome restaurant – Kalvas. Great food and a beautiful log building. Not inexpensive, but very, very good.
Wednesday morning we were on the road early and heading for Port Alberni and the Robertson Creek Hatchery out off Great Central Lake. Every SEP hatchery is so different, and so are the characters that work at them. The manager of Robertson is always interesting to spend time with – smart, interesting, and has something to say about pretty much everything. He’s one of those people who is very expressive and uses huge gestures when he expresses his opinions. It wasn’t a boring visit, it never is.
(A float home on Great Central Lake)
(Great Central Lake)
Although I was visiting hatcheries, I just didn’t feel like photographing buildings and concrete structures. Besides, that’s what the two engineers, the hatchery managers, and the maintenance guy were busy taking photos of. So I took some nice photos of flowers and things 😉
Nitinat River Hatchery was our final site to visit and it’s a fair ways in on an active logging road, on an offshoot of the Bamfield Road. We were going in near the end of the workday and there was a LOT of traffic coming out. The clouds of dust kicked up by the passing trucks would make the road disappear for moments at a time.
(Lichens dripping from the trees over Nitinat River)
There was still a lot of light left in the day so, after a bit of time to unwind, we decided to tour the site in the evening instead of the next morning. I’m always amazed at how high the pumphouse for the river intake is, until I remember that I have been told that the river is flashy and can rise as much as 12 feet in a matter of hours. The road can flood out at times and the staff can only reach the pumphouse by boat when it does. Nitinat does huge numbers of chum salmon and has some interesting innovations to make things work for them. The facility tours are great because not only did we get a feel for the things that have worked for them, but also the things that didn’t.
The isolated hatcheries, like Nitinat, have full residences and well stocked kitchens on site and we had a great steak dinner to round out the evening. After dinner there was good conversation over wine and scotch and the stories went well into the early hours. Fisheries tales are always entertaining…the things these guys used to do and the trouble they’d get into!
(Fog envelopes the Nitinat River Hatchery)
Finally, this morning, it was time to head back into civilization again. It was foggy out on the West Coast of the Island, not unusual, and it burned off by 9am. Enough time to get a few shots of the dozens of hummingbirds that hang out at the front window and make me wish I’d brought my big camera along.
After breakfast, five of us headed out in two vehicles to dodge logging trucks and dust clouds. We came out a different way, went through Cowichan Lake and enjoyed the green dampness of the moss dripping from the trees.
(Mossy forest on the road back out to Lake Cowichan)
The ferry ride was pleasant and as we approached Horseshoe Bay, it was goodbyes as the Bella Coola crew headed off towards home and three of us turned towards Vancouver.
(Taking the ferry home to Vancouver, across the Straight of Georgia)
Once again, all I can say is that I love my job and on an almost daily basis am grateful for the opportunity to be involved in such a great program.
And frig, was I tired when I arrived home. I wanted to check my email having been offline for awhile, but I couldn’t find my laptop. I had left it behind the cushions on the couch, but it wasn’t there. I checked behind the cushions at the other end of the couch, then behind the cushions on the loveseat. Nope. I looked in the nook next to the couch, then at the other end. Nope. I looked in the bedroom, checked my laptop back, investigated the desktop cabinet. Nope, nope, and nope. I looked on the chair at the end of the dining table, then started checking all around the couch again. As I stood in the middle of the living room completely baffled as to where my laptop had gone in four days away, I prepared to call Kirk to ask him where he had hidden it! Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw it, smack in the middle of the coffee table, where I’d stood and walked by it several times. Where Kirk had been sure I’d find it.
Did I mention that I’m tired? I think brain dead might be more accurate.
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