In late September, researchers came upon masses of fish floating dead or plastered along the bottom of a creek near Bella Bella, which bodes ill for salmon in similar drought-stricken creeks throughout B.C. — and those that rely on them
It’s a common enough experience. We spend weeks, months, maybe years planning and preparing for an event — then, life suddenly happens, and all those efforts come to nothing.
As humans, we usually can put these kinds of experiences down to, well, experience, take what good we can out of them, and move on.The salmon returned to Neekas Creek on the central coast this fall, only to have this year’s ongoing drought throw life at them within mere kilometres of their spawning beds.
It’s a disappointing and worrisome end to a years-long epic journey that was meant to give rise to healthy new generations of salmon. The next largest number of coho were from Queen Charlotte Strait and Johnstone Strait, followed by coho from the Strait of Georgia. Very few coho caught in the Gulf by the research team came from Washington or Alaska rivers.