Sakinaw

Any week that involves five days in the office is, to me, a crappy week and, since last week was looking like it was going to be exactly that, I booked a government vehicle, grabbed a co-worker, and headed to the ferry terminal to meet up with a transport truck that was bringing a load of 12,000 Sakinaw sockeye smolts to Sakinaw Lake on the Sunshine Coast, for release.

The transport staff start early, at Big Qualicum hatchery, load the truck with water and then net the fish from their tubs at Rosewall Creek Hatchery. They then head for the Departure Bay ferry in Nanaimo where they catch the 8:30am ferry to Horsehoe Bay, in West Vancouver. From there, they drive up the highway and take the first exit to turn back around and return to the ferry terminal where they wait in line for the ferry to Langdale on the Sunshine Coast. That’s where we meet up with them.

The 11:55am ferry lands them at Langdale 40’ish minutes later, and they then drive up the coast to Pender Harbour, where they stop briefly for any other vehicles meeting them to group up and make our way down to the lake together.

The truck picks its way down as far as it can safely go before stopping, blocking the wheels, and pulling out 150′ of flexible 4″ hose which will take the fish down to the lake and to freedom.

A local First Nations fellow is there to hold the hose and see the fish into the lake; a diver is in the water to view their dispersal and watch for mortalities. Some are stunned by the rapid rush down the hose and the change in environment but, except for a very few, most recover and disappear into the green depths.

Sakinaw Lake is a relatively large lake, clearly once upon a time an inlet from the ocean. It is home to one of BC’s most endangered populations of Sockeye salmon (http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/eccc/CW69-14-323-2016-eng.pdf).

Assessment of both returning adults and outmigrating juveniles is carried out at an assessment centre at the mouth of the lake where it empties into the ocean. The assessments are carried out to better understand the population dynamics and guage the success of the natural spawning, which is poor at best. Enumeration of the adults at return involves counting every sockeye entering the Lake from the ocean. Each fish must transit a flow control weir near tidal water before it gains access to the lake, and it is at this time that they are recorded on video and someone identifies and sexes each fish that enters. When the smolts are leaving the lake they are also counted.

Where I grew up, lakes flow into creeks, and then those flow into bigger creeks and become rivers that flow into bigger rivers. The water leaving a lake takes days and hundreds of kilometres before it reaches the marine environment. But at Sakinaw the water leaving the ocean transits a narrowing before flowing directly into the sea, through this narrow little gap.

From there it was back into Gibsons for a quick dinner and then back on the ferry home to Vancouver. On the ferry my colleague and I sat up top and marvelled at the amazing place we are fortunate enough to call home, and the luck we have to have found the careers that we have.

I do love this place, and I do love my work.

119 Photos in 2019 – 77. Narrow Gap