Paul Cipywnyk's Blog

Fish Kill in Burnaby’s Byrne Creek March 4, 2010

A chemical entered Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby in the mid-to-late afternoon today, killing fish. Someone called Environment Canada [CORRECT: in fact the City of Burnaby received the call from the BC provincial enviro ministry after a youth called the Provincial Emergency Program], who then called the City, and streamkeepers also noticed the kill around the same time. City staff took samples and worked on tracing the source, which likely came from a storm drain, while streamkeepers took photos for documentation and sampled pH in the creek at several points. Both City staff and streamkeepers plan to follow up tomorrow. Here are some photos:

The fish ladder at the pond west of Griffiths Dr.
Water is covered with foam and slick to the touch.
There was an ammonia smell coming out of the pipe.

Dead fish on bottom of pool.

Dead cutthroat with hazy water visible. That's a size 12 boot
toe beside it for comparison.

Just a few days ago, streamkeepers were excited to see baby salmon
fry popping out of the gravel. We are concerned that they may also have
been affected.

I find it hard to believe that after decades of education efforts, such
kills still happen.

Please, folks, remember that all drains on roads and parking lots lead to fish habitat!

Human Predators Impact Size of Prey

According to this article, "WASHINGTON (Reuters) ­ Hunting and gathering has a profound impact on animals and plants, driving an evolutionary process that makes them become smaller and reproduce earlier, U.S. researchers reported on Monday."

"Their study of hunting, fishing and collecting of 29 different species shows that under human pressure, creatures on average become 20 percent smaller and their reproductive age advances by 25 percent."

Complete article here.

Over-harvesting of fish (and other species) results not only in reduced numbers, but smaller survivors....

If you think about this, it appears obvious -- think of trophy hunting -- we're constantly culling the biggest animals.

What does this say about the long-term sustainability of species that we "harvest"?

Canoeing, Camping Lightning Lake

We finally got away for our first camping trip this year! I'm zonked so I'll add to this later, but here are a few photos....

Osprey on a perch.

Osprey in flight.

Loon in the morning mist.

The above shots were taken hand-held in a moving canoe at my Canon S5 IS's maximum telephoto of 432mm (35mm equivalent). Not bad, though I wouldn't want to blow them up to 8 X 10s :-). They were taken within about 30 minutes of each other, showing how fast the light can change in the morning in the mountains.

Pink Salmon Too Cheap?

Whole fresh pink salmon (head off and gutted) were on sale today at Save On Foods at Highgate Mall in Burnaby for $2.99 each. Yes, I said "each." I was struck by what seemed to be the shockingly low price -- fishermen had to burn fuel and amortize boats and equipment to catch the fish, they had to be cleaned, and then shipped a fair distance.

The one I chose weighed in at 1.1 kg (I weighed it on a kitchen scale at home because the weights were not indicated on the packaging), or about 27 cents per 100 grams, less than the occasional sale price of 29 cents per 100 grams, and much less than the common price of 39 cents or more per 100 grams.

I wonder if our society is properly valuing this resource.

Addendum: I just discovered that Save On Foods is donating 50 cents from the sale of each salmon to the CKNW Orphans’ Fund. While I laud the gesture, it doesn't ameliorate my concern -- in fact it makes me really wonder how low the wholesale price of these fish is...

Manning Park Day 2

We had a modest campfire last night at our site at the beautiful Lightning Lake campground at Manning Park, burning wood we brought with us that we had collected from a "free firewood" pile after someone cut a few trees down on their lot near our place in Burnaby several years ago. It being nearly the longest day of the year, it didn't get dark until well after 10:00. That also meant that it was getting light by 5:00 a.m., and the birds were in full chorus by 5:30. We should have gone fishing, but instead we dozed until 7:30.

We had breakfast, broke camp, and loaded the car before we tried some spincasting from shore. I had rainbow trout following my lure several times, and even had one hang about just a meter or two offshore for nearly a minute, but we didn't get a single bite. It's frustrating to see fish jumping to feed and not get a bite. Perhaps we should learn how to fly fish!

After an hour of fishing we pulled out and hiked the short Canyon Loop on the Similkameen River. It's a beautiful walk. We then drove up to the lookout on the alpine meadow road before heading back home.

A shot of the Similkameen from the canyon trail.

Pine beetle devastation.

Yumi checking out bugs in the river.

A view from the alpine meadow road lookout with Manning Park Lodge below and Lightning lake in the background.

A Steller's Jay harassed us while we picnicked at the west gate.

Adams River Sockeye Run

Yumi and I headed up to the Adams River yesterday afternoon to take in the sockeye run -- 2006 is one of the peak returns that happen every four years. I checked the BC Parks website and discovered that a campground near Vernon, Kekuli Bay, was still open, so we decided to spend the night there.

That evening it was cold and windy, and we chowed down on hot ramen and hot dogs in the dark.

The next morning, we had a chat with the park operator and complimented him on the clean site. The park is on the bare side, but still beautiful in its own way. We saw loads of small fish from the dock, and enjoyed the changing colors on Kalamalka Lake as the sun rose.

We drove up to Adams Lake via the Falkland-Chase road. It's a small highway with a stretch of gravel that passes through pretty country. When we arrived at Roderick Haig-Brown park, it was already crowded even on a weekday. There were lots of schoolbuses with hundreds of kids.

DFO staff were on hand to tell people about the sockeye, and disect a few dead ones.

We headed out to the river to watch the fish. It is a breathtaking sight to see the thousands of spawners performing their final act before they die.

We were surprised to see many chinook spawners as well -- they are huge fish compared to the sockeye. We hadn't seen any chinook when we visited the Adams run four years ago. Here's a dead chinook next to a dead sockeye and the size disparity is evident.

There were several people snorkelling and taking video and still images of the spawners.

Here's one more image of a male sockeye in his full glory.

We spent over an hour walking along the river and watching these beautiful animals complete their life cycle. As a sign on the path poignantly pointed out, they're born orphans and die childless. A true wonder of nature.

We drove to Kamloops and then took the 5A south to Merrit, stopping for an hour of fishing at Stump Lake along the way. I had a couple of bites casting from shore, saw a trout following my lure, and had one on line for 10-15 seconds, but we didn't land any. We always use single, barbless hooks. Here's Yumi as the sun began to drop in the sky.

Fraser Fishing Sees Bullhead, Squawfish, Carp

Cousin Stacy took Yumi and me out on the Fraser River today. It was sunny and hot, and while the sockeye were running, we didn't catch a single salmon. I struck first with a small bullhead, Stacy followed up with a slightly larger squawfish, and Yumi topped us both with a carp. All the fish were released.

We fished from the boat and we fished from a bar. We bounced various lures along the bottom, we trolled, we spincast... And the salmon skunked us, though we saw several jumping. Hope to try again soon!

Yumi behind the boat.

Yumi's carp.

Coleman Canoe Arrives

We ordered a Coleman Ram-X 15.5 foot canoe about a month ago from Canadian Tire and it finally arrived today. We got a great price -- it was $200 off. Now I just hope we have some time to use it this summer!

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home. I had expected it to be in a box "with some assembly required," however we got a floor model that was ready to hit the water. We had ropes and bungy cords and got it home OK, but we'll have to figure out a more efficient way of strapping it onto the roof rack.

We have only one weekend free this month, and I'm raring to get up to Birkenhead Lake or another interior lake.

Fishing Chilliwack Lake

Yumi and I worked all day yesterday (Saturday) and this morning, clearing the decks of several translating and editing projects. Done by noon, we decided to reward ourselves with an afternoon trip to Chilliwack Lake.

There were only a few people on the beach, and we tried some fishing from the shoreline. The water was amazingly clear, and while we didn't catch anything, we were able to see an occasional trout following our lures.

We started out in rubber boots, but when Yumi snagged her lure, I trundled back to the car and got my chest waders on to rescue it. With the obvious advantage of being able to get closer to the drop-off, I kept them on and in the hour we fished my legs got pretty cold!

There were quite a few people fishing the Chilliwack River for salmon, however we don't have the proper gear, so we didn't try.

This was my third fishing trip in as many weeks after a 20-year hiatus, and I'm really enjoying it.

Fishing Alice Lake

Yumi and I went out to Alice Lake just north of Squamish this afternoon for a bit of fishing and didn't get a bite.

It was still a relaxing outing, and Yumi learned how to spin-cast. She quickly got the hang of it, and soon was casting more accurately than I was. I ended up losing three lures, two in bottom snags and one in a tree, while she was incident-free!

Alice Lake is stocked with trout, but it must get intense fishing pressure all summer long being so close to the lower mainland. I know the campground is full from July through August, though there were not many people there on this September weekday.