February 26, 2006
Fish Kill in Byrne Creek
Yumi and I were dismayed to find dead fish throughout Byrne Creek this afternoon. The kill took place sometime between noon yesterday, when we walked the ravine portion of the creek and saw no fish, and this afternoon when we counted over 150 dead trout and salmon.
This photo shows trout ranging from 9cm to 33cm in length, along with one coho smolt.
We called the city, and an environmental officer was on the scene in less than half an hour. We also called another streamkeeper, Jane, and we counted 12+ dead between the slide in the ravine and the upstream end of the culvert under Southridge Dr. (Tag 517 to Tag 515). We saw 77+ dead in the Sediment Pond, and 62+ dead in the spawning channel. There were couple on the spillway and one in the overflow pond, for a total of well over 150 fish, most cutthroat trout, with a few coho smolts (young salmon that are born and live in the creek for a year before heading out to sea).
A closeup of the 33cm beauty.
We could not see dead fry (salmon babies that began appearing in the creek a few weeks ago in small numbers), however they are so small that it would take a very close examination to find any, and we ran out of time.
I fear that what killed the bigger fish may have wiped out the fry. It's been raining all evening and into the night, so chances of finding more evidence tomorrow are slim.
Later the city environmental officer called and said he found at least 50 more dead fish up the ravine as high as Ron McLean park. While we don't yet know if this kill is of the epic proportions that wiped out all life in Byrne Creek in 1998 after someone poured a toxic chemical down a storm drain, it does not look good.
I hope we find live fish tomorrow if the rain lets up.
Meanwhile, please remember, EVERYTHING that goes down a storm drain IS NOT TREATED and ends up in a creek or a river.
Posted by Paul at February 26, 2006 10:13 PM