The fish population in Burnaby's Byrne Creek is recovering following a devastating toxic spill into a storm drain that killed some 700 trout and coho at the end of February 2006. Byrne Creek Streamkeepers found 15 cutthroat trout in 9 traps tonight, for an average of 1.67 fish per trap. That's still off of the usual tally of 3-5 fish per trap, but its a huge improvement from the big, fat, zero we got a few weeks after the spill.
While we had set out 10 traps, unfortunately one was pulled from the creek by someone. We were fortunate to run across it later in Ron McLean Park. We're not sure if it's pranksters that yank the traps, or perhaps concerned citizens who don't understand that streamkeepers are authorized by the DFO to do such fish surveys.
Posted by Paul at July 26, 2006 09:30 PM