Almost 200 people bid farewell to more than 5,000 tiny coho salmon on June 5.
The 18th annual Bowen Island Coho Bon Voyage, sponsored by Bowen Fish and Wildlife, took place at the Terminal Creek Hatchery and Lagoon Causeway.
Dozens and dozens of kids, with parents in tow, put some of the salmon fry that had been raised at the fish hatchery into buckets before taking them to the water's edge and sending them off to their new home.
"As always the young kids were excited and kept coming back again and again so that they could release more fish into Terminal Creek," club director Bill Newport said. "That's what Coho Bon Voyage is all about."
More than 31,000 coho fry have been released on Bowen this spring. The club, along with a community advisor for the Department of Fisheries and Ocean, released 26,000 fry into Bowen salmon-bearing streams on May 29. As long as the hatchery's water supply remains constant and cool, the club will hold onto the final 1,000 for one more year to use as educational tools.
This year there were no chum salmon for the club to release. Newport said "we usually have about 200,000 chum at the hatchery but this year the Howe Sound chum run was almost non-existent." Chum and coho spawn at the same time, in December if creek waters are cool and deep enough.
Newport said that Metro Parks reported seeing three chum in the lagoon last December so, while the numbers would have been low, there is hope some chum did manage to spawn.
