Coquitlam River records historic return of sockeye salmon

A dozen sockeye salmon have returned to just below the Coquitlam Dam this summer, matching the total from the past eight years combined

The Coquitlam River was once home to an abundance of sockeye salmon. For decades, the Kwikwetlem First Nation have been working to build up that population. Photo by Josh Kozelj

The Coquitlam River is experiencing its largest yearly return of sockeye salmon in more than a century. 

Since July 17, 12 sockeye salmon have been observed in a trap at the base of the Coquitlam Lake dam — including eight that were caught and transported into a reservoir on one day (Aug. 2). 

The figure equals the total number of salmon that have returned to the river in the last eight years combined, says Craig Orr, an environmental advisor to the Kwikwetlem First Nation and co-founder of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. 

“If we get one or two per year, that’s sort of the standard that we’ve been seeing,” Orr said in an interview with the Dispatch. “But this year, there’s 12. And eight on one day is just exceptional.” 

Sockeye salmon have long been associated with the Kwikwetlem First Nation, a group of people that have lived in what is now called Coquitlam for at least 11,000 years. The name, Kwikwetlem, refers to the sockeye salmon that used to be seen in abundance throughout the Coquitlam River and Coquitlam Lake. In a direct translation from hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the nation’s spoken language, Kwikwetlem means ‘Red Fish Up the River.’ 

In 1913, however, the completion of the Coquitlam Dam changed the makeup of the local watershed and disrupted salmon returns ever since. 

“The construction of the Coquitlam Dam is one of the most significant colonial harms done to kʷikʷəƛ̓əm and our People as it took away the salmon from our rivers and food away from our cupboards,” wrote Kwikwetlem councilor George Chaffee in 2022, following the announcement of a new, nation-led sockeye salmon hatchery below the dam. 

In 2006, two years after being released, 11 sockeye salmon returned to the Coquitlam River from a group of 200 smolts. 

But returns have been murky ever since — with some years resulting in few, if any, salmon. 

A single adult sockeye returned to the river in 2008. And another single sockeye returned in 2020, three years after 5,000 smolts were released by conservationists.

The Kwikwetlem First Nation has been working to reestablish a sustainable run of salmon to the Coquitlam River and Coquitlam Lake watershed for decades — working alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the City of Coquitlam and BC Hydro, among other groups during that time.  

Sockeye salmon migrate to the ocean after emerging from eggs in lake or riverbed. The time it takes for them to travel to the ocean depends on whether it’s based in a lake or river. But when the fish is mature and wants to breed, it travels back to its birthplace. 

The high rate of return may be attributed to a slight increase in ocean survival, Orr said, and the fact that the hatchery is nearing completion on the river. (Elsewhere in the province, Port Alberni and the Broughton Archipelago have seen decent rates of return in recent years, Orr added.) 

However, the numbers also demonstrate that the Coquitlam sockeye have not lost their instincts for home — promising for a group of fish that came back following releases from the Coquitlam Dam. 

“Most of them still retain the anadromous traits of the adult sockeye that were cut off over 100 years ago,” Orr said. “They still have the genes, we just need to get enough of them out to survive, to come back.” 

To build off this year’s high return, Orr says it will be important to continue releasing high numbers of smolts in the Coquitlam watershed and develop an effective fish passage system in the dam.

He thinks that building gulpers or a ‘floating surface collector’ — such as one completed in Baker Lake in Washington state in 2008, which sparked the migration of hundreds of thousands of salmon — would help the rate of return in the Coquitlam watershed. Those initiatives would likely cost millions of dollars though, he says. 

In the meantime, news of this year’s return is causing excitement for the nation and conservationists. 

“Everybody seems quite thrilled to see the largest return we’ve ever seen since the dam was erected,” Orr said. “There’s hope.” 

https://tricitiesdispatch.com/coquitlam-river-records-historic-return-of-sockeye-salmon/