Environmental stress likely cause of fish die-off on Vancouver Island | 24CA News
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has discovered that “stressful environmental conditions” seemingly killed a whole bunch of salmon and trout within the Cowichan River in mid-July.
The die-off was found by folks swimming close to Skutz Falls in Cowichan River Park on Vancouver Island.
It’s not identified precisely what number of fish died, however the incident instantly raised alarms with individuals who take care of the river.
“We were all pretty shocked,” mentioned Parker Jefferson, who lives alongside the river and co-chairs the Cowichan Stewardship Roundtable.
“This has not ever been noted before, and there’s a lot of eyes on this river.”
Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) collected samples and carried out exams to find out the reason for loss of life.
In a press release this week, the division mentioned the trigger seems to be low oxygen and excessive pH ranges within the water.
“This can potentially be caused by the decay of algal growth, which appears to be more prevalent than usual this year. Excess algal growth is often related to a combination of low flows, hot, dry weather and availability of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.”
According to DFO, stress could make fish extra prone to illness.
The news comes as no shock to advocates for the river, who for years have been warning about low flows and hotter water.
The circumstances are the results of local weather change and the truth that the stream of the river is managed by a weir — a mechanism that operates like a small dam.
Water is gathered behind the weir in winter and launched in the summertime to make sure fixed stream. But the weir can solely maintain a lot water — and it is not sufficient to satisfy the wants of our trendy, dry summers.
Even although the news appeared inevitable, Jefferson was wishing it had been in any other case.
“We were, you know, almost hoping for … pollution maybe … sort of a one-off incident that won’t occur again,” he mentioned.
“This report from DFO has to be setting off a few alarm bells.”
Tom Rutherford hopes it is a wake-up name.
He’s the strategic priorities director for the Cowichan Watershed Board, a corporation made up of native authorities and Cowichan Tribes — the native First Nation — to advertise watershed sustainability.
In addition to being a spawning floor for chinook and different salmon and residential to rainbow trout, steelhead, and different fish, the river is a supply of water for the area’s agriculture and holds cultural significance to the Cowichan Tribes.
“We’ve known that the river’s in bad shape for a long time,” mentioned Rutherford.
“Finally, we fell off the wrong side of the knife edge, and I think this is an indication of what can happen and what probably will happen in the future unless we can start to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.”
Rutherford says he would not despair as a result of folks on the bottom within the Cowichan Valley are working collectively to maintain the river — following the lead of the Cowichan Tribes.
Still, he says they’re going to all be watching water ranges within the coming days to see in the event that they should step in and assist spawning salmon.
If water ranges are too low, salmon will probably be trucked from the mouth of the river to the spawning grounds.
Both Jefferson and Rutherford mentioned {that a} new, taller weir would enhance circumstances within the river.
It’s one thing advocates have been calling for for years.
The Watershed Board has what it calls a “shovel-ready” design for the weir, and earlier this summer time Cowichan Tribes renewed requires the province to step up with funding.
The province has mentioned it’s working with the board to “explore opportunities” for presidency assist.
