Capilano River Hatchery - Tour

Juvenile Rearing Area

The juvenile rearing area contains blue rearing troughs for rearing of fry. The feeding is done every half hour when the fry are first ponded, and then as they get bigger feeding frequency gets less. After the fry have grown to approximately 2 grams they are transferred into the large concrete Rearing Ponds. The feeding times in these containers vary from once per day to once per week. Fish are reared in these containers until they are released through the floor screens (as pre-smolts) to the river in the spring.

Each rearing pond holds approximately 75,000 Coho or 200,000 Chinook juveniles. Chinook are transferred out of incubation early in the year and are released late May of the same year. Coho are transferred out of incubation later in the spring and are held over winter until the following June.

The netting overhead and around the rearing area helps to keep predatory birds out. The grey wires around the rearing area are an electric fence to discourage river otter and mink from entering the ponds and taking fish.

Directly beneath the outdoor rearing pond complex is an underground level where rearing troughs and raceways are located.  Steelhead and Coho are reared in this area and the smaller rearing raceways are also utilized for research initiatives.

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