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About Us

Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society

The Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society (BIMES) is a Canadian registered charitable organization committed to providing environmental education and stewardship activities in the Burrard Inlet area, including owning and operating the Mossom Creek Hatchery & Education Centre located in Port Moody, BC. Our programs focus on salmon enhancement activities and stream, watershed and marine educational opportunities in the Port Moody Arm of Burrard Inlet.

 

Meet our board of directors, click here.

Mossom creek education Centre

Mossom Creek Education Centre provides hands-on experiential learning opportunities to students and the community. The opportunity for kids to interact with nature in a tangible way has meant that thousands of students have experienced stewardship activities in local forest, watershed and marine environments. Over the past 4 decades, volunteers and stewardship leaders have provided outdoor nature experiences to the local community. We now have a modern well-equipped education centre that offers a home base for watershed and stream-to-sea exploration

Mossom creek hatchery

Mossom Creek Hatchery is a salmon enhancement project supported by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It was started in 1976 by high school volunteers from Centennial School in Coquitlam and teachers Ruth Foster and Rod MacVicar. 

When the hatchery began, there appeared to be no salmon left in Mossom Creek. Thanks to the tireless efforts of volunteers over the decades there is now a strong run of Chum Salmon and an increasing run of Coho and Pink Salmon. 

OUR HISTORY

Our work at the Mossom Creek site has a history dating back to 1976 that began as a high school club at Centennial Secondary in Coquitlam. Learn more by viewing the timeline below.

1976
1977
1982
1991
1993
2010
2013
2015
2017
2023
Centennial Salmon Club begins

First Centennial School Salmon Project Club on site at Mossom Creek

First Incubation Box Installed in Mossom Creek
On August 29th 1977, the first incubation box, built by students in the summer of 1977, was filled with silt because of landfill from the Barber Street area being dumped down the hillside from where our large parking lot is now. Students from the club testified for the Crown at the court case against the City of Port Moody and A and G Construction that followed. We lost our 1977 chance to incubate eggs and moved upstream. Fall 1978 would be our first egg incubation. 30,000 chum eggs  from the N. Arm of the Alouette River went into the first box relocated to what is now the foot of the viewing platform area.
First Chum spawners return - CBC Nature of Things visits Mossom

Fall 1978 would be our first egg incubation of eggs on site. 30,000 chum eggs  from the N. Arm of the Alouette River went into the first box relocated to what is now the foot of the viewing platform area. Later in the spring we released 27,000 fry. Fall 1982 – first chum spawners return to Mossom. the event was filmed by CBC’s Nature of Things with David Suzuki.

 

 

 

BIMES becomes a registered society

The Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement (BIMES) Society becomes an official society in 1982.

In 1993 the original hatchery building was completed.

First Fisheries Ecology 12 program in BC

Fisheries Ecology 12 program - first year offered at Centennial School. Unique. 80% of class time in the field.

What Swims Beneath project
What Swims Beneath project – a Port Moody Inlet marine fish research study, a BIMES partnership with DFO, City of Port Moody and others. In 2022 Mossom Creek partnersed with SFU, DFO and City of Port Moody to update the study and complete 2022 – What Swims Beneath 2
Mossom Creek Hatchery burns down

In December of 2013, the Mossom Creek Hatchery burned down

New Hatchery and Education Centre

The hatchery and education centre is opened after 2 years of hard work from volunteers and supporters.

BIMES because a registered Canadian Charity in the same year.

Mossom Creek Bioblitz

The Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society held it's first Bioblitz in 2017. The second Bioblitz was held in 2023.

Rick Hansen Accessibility Certification

Mossom Creek Hatchery receives gold level for the Rick Hansen Accessibility Certification

meet our founders

Ruth Foster

Co-Founder

view bio

Rod MacVicar

Co-Founder

view bio

Stay Connected

Stay in touch with us! If you can’t visit the hatchery, stay connected by following us on social media or by emailing us. 

We love to hear from new friends and supporters, as well as our former students and volunteers.

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Ruth Foster

Co-Founder

Ruth Foster is a nationally recognized environmental education specialist. Ruth spent three decades teaching Coquitlam high school students about nature. Ruth played a key role in establishing innovative courses in fisheries and wildlife and many of her students have gone on to complete graduate degrees in biology.  Now retired from the school, Ruth continues to teach through Simon Fraser University’s Department of Education and to mentor students at the hatchery. She is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in Science, Technology and Mathematics, the BC Minister’s Environmental Award (Centennial School Salmon Project), the Fisheries and Oceans Salmonid Enhancement Task Group Award of Excellence, the VanCity Environmental Award for Individual Educator, and the Tri-City Spirit of Community Environmental Award. She was named to the Tri-Cities Top Ten of the Decade for leadership in environmental stewardship and pioneering habitat restoration.

In 2006 she won the prestigious Canadian Environmental Award Gold Medal for Environmental Learning and was the subject of an award-winning mini-documentary in the My Hero series. She also received the 2009 City of Port Moody Environmental Award, the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in Science, Technology and Mathematics, and the Kees Vermeer Award for waterbird conservation and educational work with youth. Most recently, Ruth received a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Ruth is an associate instructor for the Reed Point Marine Education Centre, a director with the Pacific WildLife Foundation  and a director of the Marine Educational Services Association. She is  a founding member of the Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society, the founding vice-president of the Port Moody Ecological Society and a member of the Burke Mountain Naturalists’ Society. 

 

 

Awards and recognition:

  • Paul Harris Community Award, Rotary Club 2017
  • Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2013
  • My Hero Award-winning documentary by Miranda Andersen 2009
  • City of Port Moody Environmental Award 2009
  • Canadian Environment Award, Gold Recipient, for Environmental Learning 2006
  • Kees Vermeer International Award 2001
  • Vancity Environmental Educator Award 1998
  • Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in Math, Science and Technology 1994
  • DFO Award of Excellence in Salmonid Enhancement 1992
  • Port Moody Environmental Achievement Award for longstanding and exemplary environmental leadership 1992
  • The Salmonid Enhancement Task Force Group Award of Excellence 1992

Rod MacVicar

Co-Founder

Rod MacVicar has been challenging the minds of young students to explore the oceans for more than 30 years. Milton McClaren, Emeritus Professor of Education, Simon Fraser University summed it up at a recent award presentation when he said that Rod is “one of the top five science teachers in B.C.” Many former students agree and credit their success to Rod’s enthusiasm to learn more about marine life in the Pacific. But his enthusiasm goes far beyond teaching science. Rod and his teaching partner Ruth Foster established the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery in Port Moody over three decades ago. He also took hundreds of students to the ocean in his own boats, an activity he continues today. He has been active in the North American Marine Educators Association, developed an on-line marine education newspaper, and he has been active in local environmental issues in Port Moody and Coquitlam.

In 2001 along with Dave Harris owner of Reed Point Marina, Rod opened the Reed Point Marine Education Centre. The Centre provides hands-on learning of marine life using touch pools, observation tanks, viewing chambers & microscopes. The Centre provides programs for elementary school to university level students and also serves as the office for the Pacific WildLife Foundation. Rod is a director of this foundation. www.pwlf.org Among his numerous awards, Rod has received the Murray A. Newman Award for Excellence in Education in Aquatic Science; the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Science, Technology & Mathematics; Kees Vermeer Award; the Salmonid Enhancement Task Group’s Award of Excellence and the City of Port Moody Environmental Award.

Rod is also a Master Mariner. Rod’s most recent award is the presitigious 2010 Blanche Hornbeck Award of Excellence given by Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

 

Awards and recognition:

  • Paul Harris Community Award, Rotary Club 2017
  • City of Port Moody Environmental Award 2012
  • Blanche Hornbeck/Roger Tory Peterson International Award for Environmental Education 2010
  • City of Port Moody Environment Award 2003 (Reed Point Marine Education Centre)