Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery

Located on the north side of the Port Moody Arm of Burrard Inlet in the heart of the City of Port Moody, Mossom Creek is used by Chum, Coho and occasionally Pink, three of the five species of Pacific Salmon.

The Mossom Creek Salmon Enhancement Project (SEP) began in 1976, one year before the Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) started the Federal SEP. That year, Rod MacVicar and Ruth Foster, two science teachers at Centennial School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, along with a small group of students interested in salmon enhancement, undertook the daunting project of creating their own salmon hatchery. The group found there was a lot to learn before they could get started, but after taking special classes and carrying out several studies of creeks in their area, they settled on Mossom Creek as the most promosing stream for their project. With permission and a small grant from DFO, the group hatched their first salmon eggs in 1977 in a stream-side incumbation box. At this point they came to be known as the Centennial Salmon Club.

The Centennial Salmon Club carried on for the next few years with the stream-side boxes until 1984 when they moved up the stream bank to the present hatchery site where the operation is better protected from flooding and siltation. At this point the project expanded to four incubation boxes with the addition of Capilano troughs in which the salmon fry could be reared for an extended period, giving them a greater chance of survival upon release.

In the late 1980's the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery upgraded to heath tray incubation, and in 1991 the present hatchery building was erected by the Centennial Salmon Club along with retired citizens from the City of Port Moody and the Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society (BIMES), a group made up of Centennial Salmon Club alumni and members of the local community to manage the expanded hatchery. In the construction of the hatchery, and throughout its history, a great deal of help and advice has also been received from the Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans.

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The project was undertaken as a valuable way for people involved to make a positive contribution to their environment. Seeing the creeks around the end of Burrard Inlet from which once healthy fish runs had been nearly eliminated by industry and overfishing, Rod and Ruth saw the potential for a project which could give their students valuable field experience, as well as help to restore healthy salmon runs to the streams.

Each fall, students from the Centennial Salmon Enhancement Project along with members of BIMES and the local fisheries advisor head down to the mouth of Mossom Creek to take eggs and sperm from a few of the returning spawners as stock for the coming year. The eggs and sperm are taken back to the hatchery where they are mixed for fertilization to occur. The fertilized eggs are then placed in heath trays, plastic trays stacked eight high through which fresh water is constantly flowing, where they develop through the winter until they hatch in the early months of the new year.

At this point the young salmon, called alevins, carry a large yolk sac under their belly which will feed them for the next few weeks. Once they have used up the yolk sac, the fish become known as fry, and are moved to the hatchery's Capilano troughs where they are fed and raised in safety until their release in the early summer.

From beginning to end of this process the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery can incubate eggs and raise young salmon in a safe, nuturing environment, which leads to a very high survival rate. The hatchery maintains a survival rate from fertilization to fry in excess of 90%, compared with less than 10% in nature. This means that with only a few eggs, salmon hatcheries can produce a relatively large number of adult fish, allowing hatcheries to accelerate the process of salmon stock regeneration.

The capacity of the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery is approximately 250,000 fish per year; however, at present the Salmon Enhancement Project raises about 100,000 Chum salmon and 15,000 Coho salmon each year.

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What Has Mossom Creek Hatchery Accomplished?

When the Centennial Salmon Enhancement Project began, no salmon where left in Mossom Creek: eighteen years of effort from the Centennial Salmon Club has resulted in a vastly successful and now self-sustaining run of Chum salmon on the creek. In excess of one thousand Chum spawners return each year, a number estimated as close to historic levels. The hatchery has also re-established a small, but ever increasing, run of Coho salmon in Mossom Creek.

Having restored the Mossom Creek run, the hatchery now supplies fish to four other streams draining into the Port Moody Arm (aka Port Moody Harbour) of Burrard Inlet, including Noons Creek and Suter Brook.

Aside from the obvious benefits to salmon, the hatchery also enhances the surrounding ecosystem, restoring food supplies to many species, including seals, bears, herons, and eagles. The Centennial Salmon Club hopes to benefit this ecosystem further by increasing local awareness of the environment through the hatchery project and related activities.

Finally, the hatchery provides numerous benefits to the residents of Port Moody and the students involved. It is a starting point which provides inspiration for many students to go on to further studies and careers involved in helping our environment and society. it also provides fish for anglers and commercial fishers. The Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery is an institution the community of Port Moody can be proud to support.

Because the rewards for operating a hatchery are not monetary, the hatchery cannot operate without the input and generosity of the community. A great deal of work and time is required to keep the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery project running, all of which is supplied by volunteers from Centennial School and the local community. Advice and the funds needed to maintain and operate the hatchery are given by the DFO, and in the form of donations from the private sector.

The best times to visit the hatchery are probably at egg-taking time in autaumn, or in the spring while the fry are developing in the Capilano troughs, but the hatchery can be visited at any time of the year. To arrange a tour, call Centennial School in Coquitlam, BC, weekdays between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM at (604) 936-7205 and ask for either Ruth Foster or Rod MacVicar.

The Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery is reached by Ioco Road in the City of Port Moody. Ioco Road turns off St. John's Street at the eastern end of Burrard Inlet and follows the north shore of Burrard Inlet back around towards the Village of Belcarra. The gravel access road to the hatchery is the first right turn after April Road. (Please be sure to organize a tour before travelling to the hatchery, otherwise the access road gate will be locked.)