August 30, 2013 – Yesterday was interesting. I was technically on holiday, but there was a sockeye release happening up at Sakinaw Lake and an extra pair of hands was welcomed, so I hooked up halfway and tagged along. It’s an impressive transport. The fish start their journey at Rosewall Creek Hatchery on Vancouver Island. The crew on deck came from Courtenay and Qualicum. One truck came down from Courtenay and filled a transport tank with cold water. The second truck came from Qualicum and carried two large transport tanks that were filled with approximately 75 kg (~40,000 fry) each.
The fish were loaded around 8am, then driven to Nanaimo and loaded onto a ferry at 11:40 am.
The fish arrived in West Vancouver at Horseshoe Bay at 12:30pm and the two trucks did a loop up the highway and back down to the Horseshoe Bay terminal to get in line for the 1:35 pm ferry to Langdale.
That’s where I joined the party, under a leaden sky and heavy rains. I hopped into one of the trucks and we loaded the ferry for the Sunshine Coast.
As we covered the kilometres, the sky seemed to lighten rather than darken. The weather forecast contained a rainfall warning, lots of water was expected. And although that makes for a miserable time outside, it’s great for the fish because it provides cooler water, cooler air temperatures, means that the transport tanks don’t heat up as much as they can on a sunny day, and means that the wild adult fish trying to return up excessively warm rivers, that are depleted of needed levels of flow, have an opportunity to make a break for their spawning grounds.
And as we came closer and closer to Sakinaw Lake, the sky actually gave us some glimpses of blue, and when we arrived, we were astounded to have a bit of sunshine.
Doug and Jim settled the trucks close to the shore, and we waited for a boat to arrive. One of the amazing things about many of the programs in SEP is the vast support from community groups. A woman who runs a B&B on the lake donates her time and her pontoon boat to help run fish out to deeper water where they can gain access to deeper, cooler water that holds more oxygen and affords a better chance of survival. Without the support of volunteers, many stocks wouldn’t see any enhancement because there simply isn’t support available for them all.
When the boat arrived, it took about 6 trips out to release them all, and the mortalities were few. It was a good release. And now we just all cross our fingers that in a few years, these fish will help replenish the stock and bring it back from the brink.
Towards the end of the releases the rain started to find its way back to us, but not heavily until all was complete. I was hoping to make a 7:30 ferry back to the Mainland, the rest of the crew was spending the night in Gibsons.
And I almost joined them.
One of the crew urged me into one of the trucks and quipped that if we didn’t get underway I’d be buying them all some beer at the pub. Enough for me to hop inside. We knew it would be tight, but we had enough time since I was just going to be a walk-on.
Well, it would have been.
But when you round a corner and see a firetruck blocking the highway, and three or four cars stopped ahead of you, and a few firemen laying out cones. . . you just know it isn’t a good situation. You also knw that someone up ahead is having a much, much worse day than you are.
When we got out to see what was going on we were told that a helicopter would be landing on the highway momentarily and that the highway would be closed for about a half an hour.
Not much one can do about that. Apparently I would be joining the crew for beer, and just hoping I wouldn’t be looking for a hotel room since there was only one more ferry, at 9:40pm.
When the traffic finally got underway after the helicopter left for Vancouver (you know it is terrible when they airlift to Vancouver and there IS a hospital in Sechelt), we passed the accident, and it was horrific. A single white car, bent in half, having been wrapped around a telephone pole. The drivers door bent in almost to the passenger’s seat. Amazingly, we found out later, there had been an almost identical accident earlier, at almost he exact same location. When the rains start people forget that the oils rise to the surface and the roads are like grease.
The crew checked in, I booked one of the two (yes, two) cabs in Gibsons to pick me up at 9:10pm for a ride to the ferry, and we wandered down to the pub. And as we had dinner and drinks, the skies let it all loose. It poured. The unofficial measurement for Squamish, which isn’t that far, was 97mm of rainfall. And the lightning and thunder was impressive. My cab showed up, and I made my ferry, but I found out later that the lightning knocked out the power at the ferry terminal a short time later and the incoming ferry couldn’t unload as the ramps could not be lowered.
And once back to the North Shore, Mother Nature continued her most excellent light show for an hour or two, and I was just grateful to be home.
Good luck little fish!