Pink salmon making comeback
Like other reports from media outlets and government web sites, the following article from the Campbell River-based Courier-Islander suggest that this year might be a good one for the return to spawning grounds of Pink salmon;
Quinsam River Hatchery officials have doubled their estimate of pink salmon returns to the Quinsam/Campbell River system to 390,000. That would make the return the largest in 20 years. In 1990 450,000 pink salmon returned. Hatchery officials swam the systems earlier this week and they also counted 585 chinook already in the Campbell, a normal count for this time of the year.
The pink salmon estimate however, could escalate as more keep coming into the system and with reports of schools offshore in and around the Campbell River waterfront. Part of the success of the return can be credited to the fish passage created a couple of years ago on the Quinsam River. That work altered what was called the Cascades on the river, a shallow riffle that prevented passage of pink salmon upstream during low water levels that are experienced in the fall.
Pink salmon, unlike other salmon, cannot easily navigate such impediments. The work opened up several kilometres of prime rearing and spawning areas upstream.
