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5,000 coho fry saved from dwindling South Langley pool

Langley Environmental Partners Society and A Rocha Canada transported fry to the Semiahmoo hatchery
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Langley Environmental Partners Society and A Rocha Canada transported more than 5,000 coho fry to the Semiahmoo hatchery from a dwindling South Langley pool. (Zoe Graham/Special to The Star)

Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) partnered with A Rocha Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to salvage approximately 5,000 coho fry from a slowly dwindling pool in the Little Campbell River by 200th Street.

Lisa Dreves, LEPS stewardship coordinator, explained that this portion of the river dries up every year, but thanks to the monitoring work A Rocha is doing, volunteers were able to properly time this salvage effort.

“A seine net was used to bring the coho into one place for staff to net them and put them into buckets,” she explained. “The fry were then transported in a large tote that was aerated with oxygen to ensure the fry were safe.”

The fry were released downstream into the Little Campbell River at the Semiahmoo hatchery where the river flows year round.

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Coho salmon fry live in freshwater streams for up to two years before heading to the ocean, they are very dependent on cold, clean water and lots of bugs to eat.

“When trapped in pools the water warms up which will kill the fish as the oxygen is no longer available to them and when in large numbers like this pool, they will very quickly exhaust all of the food,” Dreves noted.

A Rocha is a Christian environmental stewardship organization working in conservation, environmental education and sustainable agriculture.

“The fish salvage would not have been possible without the kindness of resident Murray Scott,” Dreves added. “Mr. Scott arranged access to the creek through his neighbours property and we are very thankful to him, as well as his wrench! We needed to borrow a wrench from him to turn on the oxygen tank.”

More information can be found at www.leps.bc.ca.


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25781056_web1_210709-ALT-RU-Coho-Salmon-rescue-coho_2
Langley Environmental Partners Society and A Rocha Canada transported more than 5,000 coho fry to the Semiahmoo hatchery from a dwindling South Langley pool. (Zoe Graham/Special to The Star)