I hope everyone is surviving the freeze and the snow. If you're out and about on the creek, please be careful on the icy bits.
Not sure if we'll get any more spawner patrols in this year, I don't know if anyone has checked for several days now. But despite a concerning start, it has turned into a decent spawning season. So perhaps when it warms a bit, another patrol or two to wind down the season would be good.
While we haven't tallied the numbers exactly yet, Coho were good this year, and though initially we were seeing pre-spawn mortality, as the season progressed we were finding more females completely spawned.
That's really exciting, and fingers crossed we'll see the babes popping out of the gravel in three or four months!
It has been a dismal Chum year, though, just a few.
In other ways it was a mixed year with Covid still constraining activities earlier in the year. We did have a couple of large invasive plant removal events, and those also stirred up some interest in our group. I hope next year we can ramp up some of the regular monitoring activities that have been abbreviated or fallen by the wayside.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and other cultural celebrations.
We've passed the Solstice, and days will be getting longer!
Cheers, Paul
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