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[Rodney]

Puntledge River near Courtenay on Vancouver Island:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GXTkQAgZwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHVlN9Zzi2U

Lower Squamish River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyWS0jRSeSE

[nickfrost]

I guess fishing Squamish this weekend is a negative 

[Fish Assassin]

That is devastating. Hope the eggs survive nature's onslaught.

[islanddude]

 Flood in Courtenay is just one of the rivers in a major flood stage. The Oyster and Quinsam rivers are raging.
  B.C. Hydro was sweating bullets about the torrential amount of water sweeping down from the surrounding mountains into there reservoirs.They backed off generation by two thirds from the John Hart generating station to coincide with the high tide so not to cause flooding in the lower Campbell.
 The Campbell is the highest I have seen since the major floods of 1989-91. The Oyster river was looking like chocolate milk and I saw some major wood floating down as I crossed over the bridge on the way to Courtenay Tuesday morning. I haven't been to the Quinsam river to assess the damage. Some of my neighbors told me they saw full length trees with roots floating down the Campbell which I believe came from the Quinsam.
 We are losing the war with the logging companies who destroyed the watersheds of the east island rivers back in the late 80's early 90's. They were after old growth timber. Now 25yrs. later they are taking whats left of the old growth and mowing the second growth with their machines.
 With the presense of El Nino arriving on the weather scene along with drought caused by the denuding of the forest on Vancouver Island it doesn't bode well for the remant population of steelhead that we have in most rivers here.

[Rodney]

Cheakamus River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1DJY5E8QIM

Shannon Fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqIayY-EJxI

Browns River, Courtenay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih9vXSOikGE

Mamquam River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Ihh5UlPew

[MetalAndFeathers]

Looks like the future coho run is toast 

[Humpy]

Looks like the future coho run is toast 

Does this flood only pick on coho eggs? 

[MetalAndFeathers]

Does this flood only pick on coho eggs? 

I know other species will die aswell but this year was a very very good coho run with ALOT of wild fish...

[Every Day]

We've had so many high water events this fall (some even similar to this, not quite as extreme), that many salmon either made it way into headwaters to spawn or spawned in off channel. Headwater's don't respond this much to rain - they'll come up but not to the extent where they will wipe everything out. Side channels will stay somewhat protected.

The main worries for me would be lower river spawning fish like chum. The second worry would be the main stems over flowing into off channels and dumping sediment which will suffocate eggs. I guess only time will tell, but I think it won't impact salmon (especially coho) runs as much as you think it will.

[arimaBOATER]

Some volunteer rescue boat around Steveston got caught in high tide winds & currents.
The 1940's boat 30 ft or so,with about 7-8 on board during a training run got pushed sideways & got hung up on the rock jetty. Rip in the hull.
Rescue boat needed assist from the CG.
Crazy westcoast weather.
California Oregon & Washington States were hit hard by heavy rains & with the high tide 3 homes ( Washington St ) literally fell into the ocean.

[MetalAndFeathers]

We've had so many high water events this fall (some even similar to this, not quite as extreme), that many salmon either made it way into headwaters to spawn or spawned in off channel. Headwater's don't respond this much to rain - they'll come up but not to the extent where they will wipe everything out. Side channels will stay somewhat protected.

The main worries for me would be lower river spawning fish like chum. The second worry would be the main stems over flowing into off channels and dumping sediment which will suffocate eggs. I guess only time will tell, but I think it won't impact salmon (especially coho) runs as much as you think it will.

You`re right i went and had a look around some spawning channels of the Mamquam rivers and counted well over 120 red cohos but only 6 chum but dead ones everywhere.

[rustybee]

Mamquam River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Ihh5UlPew

Look closely and you will see 3 clowns on the CNN bridge. Natural selection at work...

[bkk]

We've had so many high water events this fall (some even similar to this, not quite as extreme), that many salmon either made it way into headwaters to spawn or spawned in off channel. Headwater's don't respond this much to rain - they'll come up but not to the extent where they will wipe everything out. Side channels will stay somewhat protected.

The main worries for me would be lower river spawning fish like chum. The second worry would be the main stems over flowing into off channels and dumping sediment which will suffocate eggs. I guess only time will tell, but I think it won't impact salmon (especially coho) runs as much as you think it will.

The Mamquam has been subject to two large gravel moving events this fall which will not be good for the main river spawning fish. This river has moved a lot of gravel as well as cutting new channels. This years coho should be more or less fine as the spawn is just starting to ramp up. The protected habitats all functioned as well as can be expected and they are the saving grace for the chum in this system. I suspect that the mainstem chum, this years small even year pink return and the summer chinook that all have eggs in the gravel will not have fared very well. That also go's for any juvenile coho, chinook and steelhead juveniles in the main river. About the only fortunate things we can say about this falls flooding is that it wasn't on a pink year. Good thing as they would have been hammered.
 The Squamish has also been significantly rearranged so don't expect much for mainstream chum in 4 years time.