Volunteers have been clipping adipose fins of coho salmon reared by Powell River Salmon Society for the past three weeks.
The group, and some Fisheries and Oceans Canada staff, armed with tiny scissors and dealing with numb hands from immersion in chilly water, has volunteered time at the former Catalyst Paper Tis’kwat mill site removing fins from coho fry.
Organizer Terry Peters, who was interviewed in the video below on site by Peak reporter Paul Galinski, put together a program with the goal of clipping up to 300,000 fish. He signed up 150 people to participate.
“Terry has put in a tremendous number of hours to organize the project, and he is the only person to stand down there at the hatchery every single day, where other people are signing up for shifts,” said salmon society hatchery manager Shane Dobler. “All day, he’s helping, training people who are showing up. He’s taken clipping to a whole new level, and in addition to the fish being clipped, the benefit to the salmon society is there are a bunch of new people participating in our activities."
Coho salmon with adipose fins clipped can be retained by anglers.
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