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Salmon can find the same stream they were born in by smell. As adults, they find it to lay their eggs. To ensure the Stanley Park salmon find their birth home, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation has partnered with the Vancouver Aquarium to nurture the salmon stream in Stanley Park.
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The B.C. Hydro Salmon Stream Project in Stanley Park is a demonstration stream running from the Vancouver Aquarium to the Seawall at Coal Harbour. We’ve created this stream to highlight restoration projects in British Columbia through interactive education programs. Physically, the stream is made up of two sections: a re-circulated freshwater portion and a saltwater portion.
Our B.C. Forest Headwaters exhibit shows a waterfall and a spawning pool where salmon would lay their eggs in gravel nests called redds. The female salmon makes a redd by lying on her side and waving her tail. Once the eggs are laid and fertilized, she then covers the eggs to protect them from predators.
Once they reach the fry stage, salmon start eating insect larvae. They, in turn, are eaten by ducks and trout, which also eat salmon eggs and alevin (the second stage of the salmon life cycle). When nests are disrupted, eggs and alevin are also eaten by insects. Salmon found in freshwater spawning pools are also at risk of being eaten by bears.
Once at sea, salmon migrate to the North Pacific. During their ocean phase, salmon swim thousands of kilometres each year and form large schools for protection. The ocean's abundant food supply allows them to grow quickly, though the food they consume as adults in the ocean must sustain them for their entire journey upstream as spawners.
As our salmon return from the ocean, they will first encounter the Seawall. A culvert under the Seawall and the Stanley Park roadway would normally make the spawners' task impossible because the straight culvert causes the water to rush too quickly. So, to help our salmon, a fish ladder was installed to give the salmon places to rest as they make their way from Coal Harbour.
Salmon are amazing swimmers and leapers; a half-metre long sockeye salmon can jump at least two metres to get over obstacles such as rapids or waterfalls. Other natural "obstacles" for salmon are avoiding predators, and finding food. Man-made obstacles include damming and turbines, where fish screens are installed to help guide them to the river unharmed.
A beach pump is used to pump saltwater from the ocean to create the flow of the lower stream. Since November 2001, coho smolts have been returning successfully to the Stanley Park stream. Prior to release, the smolts are imprinted with morpholine, an organic molecule that salmon can smell at very low concentrations and use to find their way back.
When the salmon return, we collect eggs and fertilize them for our hatchery. Some spawners are also on display at our B.C. Forest Headwaters Exhibit. However, we don't leave them there due to potential predators, such as herons, and a lack of spawning gravel.
This exhibit also illustrates how B.C.'s Watershed Restoration Program is undoing the damage caused by previous logging practices. It shows the importance of installing fish-friendly culverts and how the addition of large woody debris to streams provides better fish habitat. The size and flow of small coastal rivers can greatly fluctuate, as they receive most of their water from rainfall.
In general, pollution is an ongoing problem. Pollution that goes down storm drains, however, is of particular importance for stream health. Many people don't realize that everything that goes down storm drains—cigarettes, pop, oil and gas from washing cars, and fertilizer run-off from lawns—goes directly into nearby streams, untreated.
Individuals can have an impact on habitat restoration and maintaining stream health. A number of community groups work to protect stream habitats in the Lower Mainland. The Streamkeepers organization provides detailed stream care training, including the information and skills people need for ongoing stream restoration, maintenance and quality testing.
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