Volunteers transfer coho salmon from the mouth of Shawnigan Creek to spawning habitat upstream
The creek did not historically support salmon due to a series of impassible waterfalls
On Sunday, volunteers with the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society transferred 921 coho salmon from a fish trap at the mouth of Shawnigan Creek to spawning habitat further upstream, beyond impassible waterfalls.
The coho are removed with nets from the fish trap below and temporarily placed in a holding trough.
Then the fish are transferred into a specially designed elevator rail car. The elevator utilizes a pulley system attached to a truck at the top of the ravine, where the fish are loaded into a live tank on a trailer.
The salmon are then transported to one of multiple release sites.
Once there, the fish are put into a tube that scoots them into Shawnigan Creek. The fish are then free to return to their place of birth and complete their life cycle.
Up to about 3,000 coho are expected to return to the creek this season.
As of Monday afternoon, 1,667 coho had been transferred.
Read about the recent death of coho at the fish trap due to a sediment release from a development site upstream: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/10154d67-f381-47a9-9680-37acaa23c0b6
More on the society's work with coho on Shawnigan Creek: https://mbdcs.ca/our-coho-salmon-project
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— Larry Pynn, October 11, 2026