Beaufort Watershed Stewards
I am allergic to fish. My Norwegian grandfather found this confusing. He didn’t understand how anyone could live without eating fish. My father used to take me salmon fishing in his little boat, out in the sound, but I never caught anything other than dogfish. I think the salmon knew I wouldn’t be able to eat them anyway.
BWS is not a fish-centric organization. Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society has that realm covered admirably. We are focussed on water quality and quantity. We are, of course, fully aware of the overlap between fish-sustaining water and human-sustaining water. But given that I spend a lot of time dangling probes in fish-bearing creeks, it’s not surprising that I get asked questions about fish. And my friends are surprised when I have no answers.
So, I decided to educate myself. Maybe some of you will also appreciate a quick primer on local salmonids. First, there are trout and there are salmon and they are both salmonids. In general, trout spend their entire lives in fresh water. Salmon spend much of their lives in salt water but need to return to fresh water to spawn. Spawning is the term used for how fish procreate. Spawning involves the female building a nest (called a redd) by thrashing around on the stream bottom until she has mounded up a pile of stones and gravel. Cozy! Then she releases eggs into the water above the redd and goes off to contemplate her life, soon to be eaten by a bear, mink, otter, or eagle. The male, meanwhile, releases sperm in the general vicinity of the redd and then goes off to a similar fate. So, they manage to reproduce without actually touching. Perhaps this is the origin of the term “cold fish” when referring to a passionless person.
Now, the fertilized eggs tucked safely in the crevasses of their rock nest spend the winter developing. In the spring they hatch becoming alevins. These are baby fish with the yolk of the egg still attached. As they grow the yolk sac is absorbed. When they have used up this reservoir of nutrients, they swim to the surface where they fill their swim bladder with air and begin to feed. They are now called fry.
If the fry are Pinks or Chum (two distinct species of salmon), they point their noses upstream and let the current take them, tail-first, downstream. They don’t hang around. On the other hand, Coho, another salmon species, may stay in fresh water for over a year. If you see small fish swimming around in our creeks, they’re almost certainly Coho.
We only see full-grown fish in late summer or fall. Pinks head up the creeks as soon as there is enough water. The timing depends on seasonal rainfall. They spend eighteen months in the ocean, no more, no less. The larger Chum arrive around the same time but they spend as many as five years in the briny sea. Like the Pinks, the Coho spend around eighteen months in the ocean but they leave later so they arrive later. It’s easy to know when the Coho are here because Little Bay is suddenly filled with people in small boats or chest waders wielding fly rods.
When we’re out and about in the fall, when the creeks are full of returning salmon, this is the time we are the most vigilant about bears. Bears depend on the oily, nutritious salmon flesh to get them through the winter. They prowl the banks scooping out live fish and scavenging dead fish. We make lots of noise approaching a stream to announce our presence. It may be exciting to see a bear on the opposite bank but clearly, we prefer not to get too close. And since I’m allergic to salmon, I’m not inclined to argue with a bear over its freshly caught fish.
Mike Mesford
Director.tech@beaufortwater.org
250.702.5900
