Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RalphH]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/60794935922

Sadly we expected this with the rain last night right after releasing 3,700 smolts in Byrne Creek yesterday with elementary schoolkids.
We suspected this would happen as it has happened following releases many times over the years. If it rains too soon after a release before the smolts migrate to the river, they get killed by road wash -- a chemical in tires identified by research in Washington State that coho are particularly susceptible to.
Joan and I counted a couple of dozen dead smolts today, but the place we usually see the most morts -- the sediment pond -- was too murky to see anything. I'll go back later in the day when it has cleared.
As I was there, I saw a smolt throw itself out of the pond on to a sandy bank, before flopping back in the water. There was one mort floating on the surface, and there were several up on the banks in the artificial spawning channel.

[ern]

How sad.
I found an article (Dec 2020) from the University of Washington discussing how they isolated the chemical responsible and potential fixes. Very curious that Coho suffer while Chum, not so much - probably a great clue for those working to mitigate the problem.   

https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/12/03/tire-related-chemical-largely-responsible-for-adult-coho-salmon-deaths-in-urban-streams/

[RalphH]

Byrne creek has seen decades of degradation. Salmon populations were wiped out and reintroduced around 40 years ago. The stream doesn't have  much productive spawning gravel. Runoff and flash floods have been associated with fish kills as well as spills of industrial and cleaning products. Little real progress has been made though the stream does seem to have a population of native cutthroat and small #s of sea run trout.

The chemical compound 6PPD-quinone that kills coho when it is washed into drains and streams  has also been found to kill up to 50% of rainbow and brook trout under laboratory conditions; https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2014278723575

[Blood_Orange]

Depressing. Glad they're doing the salmon release in the creek, but too bad the gains get wiped out immediately. Even more depressing to assume that this is happening in all of the small waterways in the GVRD. Maybe if we shot some seals then things would improve.

[Darko]

This is so horrible to see. I go by the creek on my way to school each day for the last 5 years. We need innovation in cleaning supplies and other possible pollutants in order to avoid these sort of catastrophes. I wish government would enforce such policies, relying on the consumer in a capitalistic society will not work ever. Governments really need to take more action.

[RalphH]

Not enough is ever done. Same problems left unaddressed for decades and decades. Take this article from 1995 which was posted on the streamkeepers site a month ago:



as Paul Cipywynk of the Byrne Creek SK group wrote:

How about a "Salmon Rescue Plan" for Byrne Creek dating back to October 1995?
Found in a box of records collected by the late Ken Glover, one of the Vancouver Angling & Game Association members who began cleaning up Byrne Creek about 30 years ago.
I am struck by how many of the issues/impacts on the creek have little changed in all those years. . .
We are still seeing regular sediment flows from construction sites, we are still having pollution events, and we still have nearly no systems (particularly on City land and around City buildings) to "hold back, filter and gradually release rainwater runoff."

I recall back in the early 80s when civil engineering approaches to eliminate the peril surface drainage posed to urban and suburban streams ...which were subsequently rejected as "too expensive", meaning needing too high a tax rate and higher housing prices.

[clarki]

Gosh, that's got to be frustrating and disappointing for the volunteers.

[Roderick]

This article says tires produce 2000X the pollution compared to car exhaust.  It also mentions, without a link, that California has proposed a ban on the chemical that kills coho. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyres-produce-more-particle-pollution-than-exhausts-tests-show

[Darko]

This article says tires produce 2000X the pollution compared to car exhaust.  It also mentions, without a link, that California has proposed a ban on the chemical that kills coho. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyres-produce-more-particle-pollution-than-exhausts-tests-show

is it just me or it tire spelled wrong

[RalphH]

is it just me or it tire spelled wrong

tyre is the common UK spelling.

On the topic. I recall that after the island highway was built some people saw a connection between the new Inland highway and the sudden decline of salmon and in particular steelhead on many streams on the mid-east coast of the Island. Brake dust was also said to have chemicals bad for fish and road runoff as of those as well as tire dust may explain some of the sudden decline.

[Darko]

tyre is the common UK spelling.

On the topic. I recall that after the island highway was built some people saw a connection between the new Inland highway and the sudden decline of salmon and in particular steelhead on many streams on the mid-east coast of the Island. Brake dust was also said to have chemicals bad for fish and road runoff as of those as well as tire dust may explain some of the sudden decline.

you learn something new everyday

[GordJ]

And booster is spelled borchestershire.