Capilano River Hatchery - Operations

Capilano Hatchery operates year round with a full time staff of ten people and depending on seasonal requirements, employs an additional one to three casual employees. The different life cycles of the salmon which are incubated and reared at the hatchery dictate the seasonal activities.

Summer Activities

• Cleaning of adult holding ponds, juvenile rearing ponds and the incubation room.
• Coho adults start to return in June.
• Summer Run Steelhead start to enter the river in June.
• Daily trap sorts to collect adults that have returned to the hatchery.
• Adipose fin clipping of juvenile Coho.
• Coho fry are transferred from Capilano troughs into rearing ponds.
• Coho fry transplants into the upper river above the Capilano Lake Reservoir.
• Steelhead fry are "ponded" to rearing troughs.
• Coho adults are transported above the Capilano Reservoir.

Fall Activities

• Coho adults return until December, and egg-takes occur from late September through December.
• Chinook adults return from September to December, and egg-takes occur throughout this time.
• Summer Run Steelhead continue to enter the river until December.
• Steelhead fry transplants into the upper river above the Capilano Lake Reservoir.
• Coho fry are coded-wire-tagged.
• Adipose fin clipping of juvenile Steelhead.
• Steelhead fry are transferred from rearing troughs into rearing raceways.
• Coho adult transplants above the Capilano Lake Reservoir.
• Coho adults are collected to use for dissections in schools for the Salmonids in the Classroom program.
• Coho Festival and Coho Walk.

Winter Activities

• Coho and Chinook eggs are incubated indoors in tall stacks of heath trays located in the incubation room.
• Careful monitoring and manipulation of water temperatures allows the hatchery to determine egg development (how quickly the eggs will hatch) and fry ponding times.
• Coho eggs are distributed to local schools for the Salmonids in the Classroom program.
• Winter Run Steelhead start to enter the river in January.
• Chinook fry are "ponded" outside in rearing troughs.
• Daily cleaning, feeding and data collection.

Spring Activities

• Chinook fry are transferred from rearing troughs into the rearing ponds.
• Coho fry are "ponded" outside in rearing troughs.
• Chinook fry are adipose fin clipped and coded-wire-tagged.
• Winter Run Steelhead return until May.
• Summer and Winter Run Steelhead egg-takes occur from March to May.
• Steelhead eggs are incubated.
• Chinook, Coho and Steelhead smolts are released.
• Coho smolts are transported to net pens in the ocean for various Public Involvement Projects.

Current research initiatives at Capilano Salmon Hatchery

• Upper Capilano River Coho and Steelhead productivity.
• Upper Capilano River smolt passage past the Cleveland Dam.