Experience the thrill of releasing a baby Coho Salmon into our natural stream and watch it begin its miraculous journey to the sea. Join the Stoney Creek Environment Committee and the community as it celebrates the life cycle of the Pacific Salmon with THE GREAT SALMON SEND-OFF on Saturday May 10th!

The fun begins at 10:00am and runs until 2:00pm. This fun-filled community event for family and friends is in its eighteenth year and includes interactive activities with an environmental theme, displays, children's activities, entertainment, refreshment - and our guests of honour - the Salmon.

Stoney Creek is a part of the Brunette River Watershed and is one of the area’s healthiest streams. An oasis for wildlife and people, the creek has seen the return of Chum, Coho, Pinks and Steelhead Salmon to its upper reaches in the last three years. THE GREAT SALMON SEND-OFF is an event that creates awareness of this fragile ecosystem in our back yard and it serves to protect it. through eco-friendly practices and Green alternatives.

A phenomenal success story unfolds in Stoney Creek as young hatchery-raised coho salmon released by children into the creek every spring at the Great Salmon Send-Off, are now returning every fall with other salmon to spawn (lay their eggs) and then die, after avoiding the stream for fifty years.

Some of the salmon returning last fall likely were young coho released by children at the Great Salmon Send-Off eighteen months before, when they almost immediately headed for the ocean and were now making their dramatic appearance as mature spawners. The wild salmon lay their eggs in the fall, and in the spring they hatch. The coho fry remain in the rearing habitat in Stoney Creek for about a year before going to the ocean.

The Great Salmon Send-Off is an annual fun-filled community event for all ages. It includes activities with an environmental theme, displays, entertainment, refreshment and - most importantly - the salmon. The highlight is the release of coho fry into the creek. The event stresses the need for vigilance and eco-friendly practices, and much work still needs to be done to preserve the natural habitat and educate the public to be stewards.

Before urbanization, Stoney Creek was a thriving natural spawning ground for coho, chum, steelhead and cutthroat. For fifty years man-made barriers prevented the salmon from returning to their historic spawning ground.. The community had a strong will to see the salmon return and the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, the Sapperton Fish and Game Club, the Greater Vancouver Regional District, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the City of Burnaby and other levels of government, the business community and the Stoney Creek Community School all worked together to bring home the salmon. When the barriers were reduced, returning salmon were able to find their way home, and the last three years have seen the miraculous return of the fish

In the fall, watch for the salmon returning to spawn. They might well be fish released into Stoney Creek at the Great Salmon Send-Off eighteen months before. It is an incredible sight, as the mature spawners instinctively and with great determination, splash their way upstream to spawn! Remember, these fish are sacred and there are laws to protect them, if necessary.

THE GREAT SALMON SEND-OFF takes place on Saturday, May 10, 2008, 10:00am - 2:00pm, on the grounds of Stoney Creek Community School, 2740 Beaverbrook Crescent, which is near Lougheed Town Centre in northeast Burnaby, BC.
For more information about the Great Salmon Send-Off see the Stoney Creek website.

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