Ignorance kills 1000 fish

[GabriolaJohn]

Ignorance kills 1000 fish
by The Canadian Press - Story: 81433
Oct 5, 2012 / 6:53 am

A fish kill in Vancouver's last wild salmon-bearing stream is being blamed on ignorance.

Staff with the Musqueam First Nation say the incident happened in the last week of September as fisheries workers were checking discharge from a storm sewer on the edge of the reserve in southwest Vancouver.

Musqueam fisheries manager Richard Sparrow says the workers noted a strong smell of chlorine coming from Musqueam Creek and found more than 1,000 dead spine stickleback, coho salmon and rainbow trout.

The workers followed a hose back to a home in a nearby upscale development where Sparrow says the residents were pumping out their swimming pool, sending the chlorinated water gushing into the storm sewer.

He says it's difficult that negligence has set back years of restoration work on the creek and wants to emphasize the damage caused when household chemicals are dumped into storm sewers.

Environment Canada has been notified of the fish kill. (News1130)

 

[Cuba Libre]

The problem is most people living near creeks have NO idea that things seemingly so innocuous as pumping put a hot tub or pool will kill fish. 30 years ago volunteer enhancement groups and streamkeepers were fighting that battle.

 

[Sushihunter]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/05/bc-salmon-killed-bleach.html


More than 1,000 fish have been killed following a chlorine contamination incident in one of the last salmon-bearing streams in Vancouver.
CBC News learned Friday that the kill occurred in late September when a residential swimming pool a south Vancouver was drained into a storm sewer, literally bleaching salmon, trout, and other marine life in a stream that flows through the Musqueam Indian Reserve.
Aboriginal fisheries officer Willard Sparrow said he and a partner stumbled onto the "kill zone" after spotting a clear liquid being discharged into Musqueam Creek.

"There was clear liquid coming out of here, that smelled of a heavy chlorine smell and upon our approach we saw some fish that were belly up," Sparrow said.

Sparrow said a contractor doing work on the swimming pool didn’t realize the storm sewer went directly into the creek.
“What we found really bizarre is that the fish were bleached,” he said.

Sparrow said the incident is especially regrettable because the Musqueam and many volunteers have spent years restoring the creek.
"It kind of felt like somebody burnt my church down. That's how important this system is to me. It's culturally important. It's culturally who I am," said Sparrow..

Three spawning coho salmon were also killed.

Sparrow is worried that if there isn’t rain soon to flush out the creek out, other coho and chum salmon waiting to come upstream will meet the same fate.

The Musqueam are now passing out flyers to residents to try to stop any further pollution.

 

[Sushihunter]

Here's a thought:

Send a couple of Fire Department Pumper Trucks full of fresh water and have them flush as much water into the creek via the storm sewer as they possibly can as soon as they can.

I don't think the fish can wait until the rains come, in days to weeks from now.

Oh, ya - and make the idiot with the pool pay the whole shot!

 

[Finished Business]

My family has a (to be left un-named) creek running through our property in the lower mainland. This past year we saw a chum return that I haven't seen in what feels like a decade. The creek is no wider than 10' (at its widest point) during the spawning season. I saw 10-15 fish (all a consistent 10lbs) in each of the pools around the property. The same could be said for the entire creek. While checking out this years early chum fry, fisheries popped into the neighborhood, informing me they will be releasing 5000 coho fry just up-creek from the house. Over the last few months I have watched these fish grow at an awesome rate. I really hope in 3 to 4 years I see some red fish in the creek. All the being said, this creek is TINY, but its salmon bearing qualities are huge. I couldn't imagine what a chlorinated pool dumped into it would do... so sad. But what Cuba said is true, people just don't know what that small trickling creek can produce for the future...

 

[GLG]

I really hope in 3 to 4 years I see some red fish in the creek.

FYI Coho here spend 18 months in the fresh water then 18 months in the saltwater, then they return.
Yup you might find the odd 4 year old but it's not common.
Depending where you live you could also say that they hang around the SOG till October,
then spend 1 year off shore to return in the fall.
Please keep us up with results for your stream.
No I'm not a fish biologist, I just stayed at a holiday inn once.
GLG

 

[tubber]

What is the proper way to pump out a swimming pool? Everyone in Kelowna pumps them into the street drains from what I can see.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Check this out http://green.dc.gov/service/how-properly-discharge-and-dechlorinate-swimming-pool-water and sunlight kills chlorine fairly quickly, so leave the pool uncovered and aerate. (If you have room-- just slowly discharge it onto the ground where it cant get back into a stream)

 

[Finished Business]

FYI Coho here spend 18 months in the fresh water then 18 months in the saltwater, then they return.
Yup you might find the odd 4 year old but it's not common.
Depending where you live you could also say that they hang around the SOG till October,
then spend 1 year off shore to return in the fall.
Please keep us up with results for your stream.
No I'm not a fish biologist, I just stayed at a holiday inn once.
GLG

I am no biologist either so poking a hole or two is expected! Just riding this learning curve, still with training wheels lol. So in 3 years I would likely/hopefully see some numbers returning? How long do they spend in the tributary creek prior heading to the larger river? I know from past experience (lived on the creek for 20 years) that the november rains/floods blow out the creek to 5-8 times its normal flow. I can't imagine the roughly 4" coho hanging around for that, and I assume they move to the big river for what would be I'm guessing the next 12 months of their time in freshwater??

I was really surprised at the growth of these baby salmon. We have a small pool directly infront of the house. I damned 60% of it (with a steady flow of water emptying from the middle of the dam) which fisheries gave the OK to, and it created one of the bigger pools on the creek, and in no time it had an abundance of fry swimming around, in larger numbers than I had ever seen. Again, pretty excited to see what the coming years bring.

Aside from the chum of past years, I would encounter a few steelies in the bunch, egg hunting up the creek as well....

 

[GLG]

I am no biologist either so poking a hole or two is expected! Just riding this learning curve, still with training wheels lol. So in 3 years I would likely/hopefully see some numbers returning? How long do they spend in the tributary creek prior heading to the larger river? I know from past experience (lived on the creek for 20 years) that the november rains/floods blow out the creek to 5-8 times its normal flow. I can't imagine the roughly 4" coho hanging around for that, and I assume they move to the big river for what would be I'm guessing the next 12 months of their time in freshwater??

I was really surprised at the growth of these baby salmon. We have a small pool directly infront of the house. I damned 60% of it (with a steady flow of water emptying from the middle of the dam) which fisheries gave the OK to, and it created one of the bigger pools on the creek, and in no time it had an abundance of fry swimming around, in larger numbers than I had ever seen. Again, pretty excited to see what the coming years bring.

Aside from the chum of past years, I would encounter a few steelies in the bunch, egg hunting up the creek as well....

Expect those fry from DFO release to be back as adults in 2 years. They should turn into smolts May 2013 and leave the creeks and rivers for the SOG. They will spend time there till Oct 2013 then leave for the North Pacific. They will grow out there and mature to return in October or November 2014.

Don't know how the fry survive or where they hide when the creeks blow out, but they do.
You truly are lucky to have a creek on your property that has a run of Coho and Chum.
Best to celebrate with your neighbors and educate everyone on how to protect them.
We can't do much for them when they hit the chuck but we sure can do something for them here in the fresh.
GLG