A bumper return of chum salmon to B.C.’s south coast is flooding urban streams in Metro Vancouver, inspiring dedicated streamkeepers, providing easy viewing opportunities for the public and offering hope for the coexistence of nature in a modern metropolis.
“These ones have passed the natural-selection process,” said Crecien Bencio, peering down from a foot bridge into Still Creek in industrial east Vancouver. “They’ve avoided the bears and the eagles. They’ve beaten the odds.”
They’ve avoided the people, too. Commercial fishermen have taken an estimated 173,000 chum out of a predicted return of two million to the Fraser River, helping to offset dismal sockeye runs last summer that kept fishing boats at dock. Aboriginal fishing continues for chum.
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