Wow, 890 Coho smolts in one day! That was the catch one day last week at the smolt trap on Shelly Creek. We're still getting 100 to nearly 300 a day so don't miss out on the action. The migration out of the creek into the Englishman River will probably run for another 3 weeks, so there's still time to participate and help collect important data on the importance of Shelly Creek as a overwintering habitat for salmon smolts. We start at 9 am everyday at the trap on Martindale Rd. Sign up for the days you are available right here: Sign Up.
We are repeating the survey to see if there have been any changes to the fish species and numbers that use the estuary since the removal of the dyke. We noticed right away that the flounders we were catching were larger than last year, and that we were also catching sand dabs. The other fish were the usual suspects from last year: sculpins, gobis, stickleback and loads of shrimp.
Only one person fell in this time as opposed to six people last year, LOL, so we're getting better. We will beach seine again one day in May and one in June so we can observe changes throughout the season. Come on out and join the fun. We'll announce our next seining event via email.
The monitoring program is overseen by Peter deKoning (standing on the left in photo), Restoration, Inventory and Monitoring Biologist for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations (FLNRO). The Nature Trust has a Partnership in Conservation with FLNRO.
Come out and help us count the Coho Salmon smolts as they migrate out of Shelly Creek to the Englishman River.
Every spring, for six weeks, we set up a smolt trap in Shelly Creek to count the number of Coho smolts and fry that overwintered in the creek to escape the turbulent flows of the Englishman River. We usually count several thousand in a season but one year was exceptionally good when we counted over 8000 smolts. Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout also venture into the trap, along with the occassional frog, salamander and duckling. An otter visited us in 2018 to steal our smolts.so you never know who's going to show up.
The smolt trap is on Martindale Rd where Shelly Creek crosses under the road. We start counting at 9 am every morning and are usually done by 10 am.
On April 20, ten volunteers under the direction of our Dave Clough completed a beach seining survery of the Englishman River Estuary. You may remember that last year we conducted a similar survey before 
Come out and help us count the Coho Salmon smolts as they migrate out of Shelly Creek to the Englishman River.