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Rivers Inlet, British Columbia

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Hatchery Project

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The Hakai Sport Fishing Association Hatchery Program 

            Thirteen years ago the lodges of Rivers Inlet and Hakai Pass on British Columbia’s Central Coast joined forces to create the Rivers Inlet Hakai Pass Sport Fishing Association Hatchery, a unique fishery enhancement project.  A special breed of chinook salmon now arrives before the main migration of summer chinook, providing lots of early season action in June, July and early August, for anglers throughout the Central Coast region and beyond.

The project succeeded in a big way and continues to grow big fish and more of them.  In addition to the Association’s hatchery at Shotbolt Bay at Rivers Inlet, the group also partners with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia in a new “captive broodstock” program.

            “The idea of the broodstock program is to increase survival rates to 80 percent versus a wild survival rate of only one or two percent,” notes Randy Wright, project manager at Shotbolt Bay.

            Each year native chinook are captured with hook and line in the Killbella and Chuckwalla Rivers, two of the main tributaries that feed Rivers Inlet.  Once captured, they are “tubed” and kept alive in the river until they ripen and then they’re striped of their eggs and milt. The eggs are then incubated at the hatchery at Shotbolt Bay where they grow to various stages of development.  Approximately 50,000 eyed eggs are moved to Snootli Creek Hatchery in Bella Coola, as an insurance policy to ensure success.

            The remaining eggs are divided into different projects using different methods to enhance the fishery.  Some eggs are raised to fry size in troughs at Shotbolt bay and then transported to sea pens in the Killbella/Chuckwall River estuary.  Six thousand fry are held at the hatchery for an entire year and then transported by tanker vessel to Port Hardy, where they grow to adulthood to provide a healthy supply of eggs and milt.   The remaining multi-thousand fry are airlifted by helicopter and dropped back into the same pools their parents came from.

The hatchery program’s success is not just measured in fish returning to the rivers to spawn naturally, it’s also measured by the smiles of countless anglers throughout the B.C. coast.  Guests visiting resorts and lodges throughout the Rivers Inlet and Hakai Pass region can enter the Central Coast Salmon Derby from June 15 to September 30^th.  In addition to winning lots of great prizes anglers can enter with the knowledge that all monies raised from the derby goes toward the continued success of the Rivers Inlet, Hakai Pass Sport Fishing Association Hatchery.

Hatchery Continued.....Click Here

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Rivers Inlet Resort, P.O. Box 1015 Renton, WA 98057-1015

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