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.
First Centennial School Salmon Project Club on site at 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.
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.
The Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement (BIMES) Society becomes an official society in 1982.
In 1993 the original hatchery building was completed.
Fisheries Ecology 12 program - first year offered at Centennial School. Unique. 80% of class time in the field.
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
In December of 2013, the Mossom Creek Hatchery burned down
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.
The Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society held it's first Bioblitz in 2017. The second Bioblitz was held in 2023.
Mossom Creek Hatchery receives gold level for the Rick Hansen Accessibility Certification
