The final count for Cortes Island’s 2024 Chum run is not yet in, but according to local streamkeeper Christine Robinson, “We have never seen a return like this during the 34 years we’ve lived on Cortes, but the phenomenon is up the coast as far as Alaska. It’s not specific to Cortes and the Discovery Islands.”
“It’s down into Washington state as well,” added her husband and fellow streamkeeper, Cec Robinson.
On Monday, November 18th, five Cortes stream keepers and a semi-retired DFO employee from Campbell River gathered in the Klahoose Hatchery to count this year’s first egg take from Basil Creek.
Christine Robinson: “Males and females were taken from the creek. The milk and the eggs were taken out and they were fertilized by hand. It happened twice this year because there were enough that came in.”
Cec Robinson: “So ten pairs and then another fifteen pairs.”
Cortes Currents: All of the eggs counted Monday were from those first 10 pairs. There were 24,949 eggs. 829 were dead, which leaves more than 24,000 live eggs. Assuming that there is a similar harvest from the remaining 15 females, the streamkeepers could have about 60,000 Chum eggs.
Cec Robinson: “Today was shocking the eggs that we have in the Klahoose hatchery. Shocking, picking out the dead ones and counting what we’ve got. The shocking is a simple process of physically shocking the egg to break a little membrane inside any of the non viable eggs. This little membrane will fracture and when the water gets in, it turns the egg white. So you know which ones are not viable and you pick them out. So it’s a case of counting or weighing the number of live and the number of dead. We want to know the percentage of the survival, how many eggs we’ve taken and the level of fecundity of the females. That’s of all super interest to DFO.”
“In this case it was terrific. The usual expectation is around 2,000 eggs per female. We took 2,500. These fish were extra big and extra healthy. The eggs actually are extra large. It all bodes well for the survival of these little guys. Now we know how successful we’ve been so far and what our potential is for stocking the creeks.”
Cortes Currents: Do you usually have a number of eggs that die?
Cec Robinson: “There’s always some, I think 5% mortality is excellent and at this point we’re under four (3.32%). There will be a few more over the next few days and we’ll just keep picking out the ones that have turned white. It’ll still be under 5%.”
Cortes Currents: Do you have any idea how many salmon came up this year?
Cec Robinson: “Our best guess would be easily 2,500 and there could be close to 3,000 – in Basil Creek alone.”
Christine Robinson: “Not collectively on the island, I’m still totalling up.”
Cortes Currents: Given that this year’s run seems to be shaping up to be two to three times larger than anything seen in recent memory, why bother taking eggs?
Cec Robinson: “That’s a darn good question. I’m sure nature does the job way better than we can, but it’s happened twice in recent years that Basil Creek has had a massive flooding that essentially blasted most of the eggs out of the creek or buried them. If the fish are unfortunate enough to have that happen again, this year we’ve got a bit of a reserve. The other thing we can do is use some of these eggs in the less productive streams. So, in Whaletown Creek, James Creek or Carrington Creek. Some of them will go there, and those streams are the ones that could definitely do with a larger run.”
Cortes Currents: Why do you think this year’s run was so big?
Christine Robinson: “There’s just so many factors that are beyond human control:First Chum Egg Count Of The Year – Is Terrific! ocean temperature, currents, where the food is and all of that stuff.”
Cec Robinson: “Probably the biggest accomplishment that we’ve seen in recent years has been the installation of those arch culverts: one in Squirrel Cove and one in Whaletown That reopened old habitat to those fish. They’ve actually been able to make use of 10 times as much spawning ground than they could have in Basil Creek prior to 2017.”
Christine Robinson: “Because the water levels were high, because of the arch culverts that went in, and because of the numbers that came in – they’ve pushed up the creeks.”
Cortes Currents: Aren’t we also having to deal with lower waters in the Spring?
Christine Robinson: “That’s why we moved from Coho to Chum in 2017. Chum move up into the creek from their reds when they’re a little fry and they’re out in the oceans in less than 10 days.”
Cec Robinson: “Low water in the Spring hasn’t been a big problem. These guys could probably happily spawn in a stream that goes bone dry in the summer. They don’t know about that. Their long term chances of survival in our changing climate is a lot better than the Coho and Spring that have a lifestyle that requires a year or two in the stream.”
Cortes Currents: There was also a more human side to this story. Chris Napper is one of the veteran streamkeepers, but the other two who accompanied the Robinsons were more recent additions.
Christine Robinson: “We’re working hard to encourage and excite younger stream stewards, young adults. I think it’s important in all of these areas that we’re working in that we mentor and bring in new, fresh energy. We had two other young people today who couldn’t make it at the last minute. So I was just thrilled that we had Jordan and Evelyn here.”
Jordan Trebett was one of the volunteers who has been helping increase the salmon spawning potential of James Creek.
“I’m a fisherman, so I feel like this is part of giving back,” he said.
Evelyn Underhill explained, “I just started a month ago. I work as a kayak guide. I always thought the salmon were pretty special. It’s cool to work in the ecosystem when they go out to the ocean, and see how their health affects everything else. I’ve never seen the eggs because I work on the ocean. It was nice to see where it all starts.”
Links of Interest:
- Video: Basil Creek, Fish Water (Nov 14, 2024
- Nature’s Salmon Feast at Basil Creek (Nov 11, 2024)
- DFO: Chum runs are looking much better throughout most of our area (Oct 29, 2024)
- The Chum Return to Basil Creek (Oct 22, 2024)
Top Photo credit: Cec Robinson and semi-retired DFO emplyee Dave Ewert in the Klahoose Hatchery
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