It was brought to my attention recently that we have not updated our website.  So, I write this letter to update you on the goings on at “the Hatchery”.

Another quiet and beautiful summer has come and gone in our little corner of the forest.  And as the warmth, and the noise of big ski boats have been replaced by the clouds and the rain, the salmon have returned.

This fall has been remarkable.  The chum have returned in strong numbers, over five hundred! The coho return is the strongest ever.  Over 120 of these smaller, black and red guys could be found (many thanks must go to Arne for counting and walking the entire creek from the estuary to East Road!)  To our total amazement, four pink salmon were found.  Even better, they were two spawning pairs.  I can’t help but laugh at this because this is the year we are beginning our pink salmon program (spoiler alert).

As of my writing this, we currently have a hundred THOUSAND chum eggs, three thousand coho eggs, and fifty four thousand PINK EGGS!!  There will be more coho eggs as we have brood stock ‘ripening’.  As mentioned, a new enhancement project for the hatchery is pink salmon.  They return every two years to spawn and will add more excitement to Port Moody Inlet in late summer on the odd number year.

Not many people know, but we NEARLY had a huge project undertaken this summer.  Why would I tell you about something that didn’t happen?  Because it will happen, next year.  We are going to get the rock weirs repaired and replaced on the lower reaches of the creek.  This will help with natural salmon spawning by creating terraces of gravel for salmon to spawn in and for eggs to develop.  The pair of pink salmon that showed up in September slammed any chance of us getting heavy machinery in to the creek at that time to do the work.  It WILL HAPPEN next summer.  We’ll tell you all about it when it does.

Also, we are closer to achieving charitable status.  This will allow us to issues charitable receipts to supporters wishing to give us donations.  It would benefit us greatly to gather funds without the onerous task of grant applications and documentation of expenditures they require.  Thanks to Reiner for carrying through with this effort.  In the new year, we will submit our application and should be an official charity as soon as that is approved.  Again, we will keep you posted!

Some more quick hits:

• Salmon Club, led by long time volunteer and Centennial teach Mel Mattson, is showing a resurgence in attendance
• Rona, on Barnet Highway, made a donation from their monthly popcorn sales (over eleven hundred dollars!).  A thank you to Karen Pelkey who thought of us when looking to donate their proceeds.  Please reciprocate their generosity and give them a visit
• We need an accessible, at-grade toilet.  We have a grant to buy the toilet but we need more funds for a secure building to place it in.
• Our fiberglass roof over the Capilano Troughs needs replacing.  A big expense but a fun project after winter.
• Plans to reactivate the ‘coho pond’, creating a complex habitat for young coho.  Something that won’t attract river otters, again!
• There has been tremendous growth in memberships.  For $100 we now have LIFETIME memberships.  Thanks to Brian for chasing down all our members.
• Mossom has a Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel. Check it out and share our content.  We can always use helpful suggestions and more awesome Mossom content.
• Join our excitement as we approach the new year.  We are open every Sunday at 11am until 1 pm.  We always have lots of freshly ground coffee, fresh baked bread and other treats.