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HABITAT RESTORATION
Massive rock reef gives salmon a fighting chance BRENT RICHTER
brichter@nsnews.com
Lynn Creek just doesn’t behave the way she used to.
The fish-bearing body of water is home to every species of salmonid except sockeye, but none of them return in huge numbers. As the North Shore has developed and industrialized, the creek has become the endpoint for mass amounts of stormwater and its banks have been armoured with boulders to prevent erosion. By the time water reaches the mouth at Burrard Inlet, the estuary is flowing faster than it would under natural conditions, and much faster than migrating salmon would prefer. But a major project has now begun to establish a massive rock reef in the estuary, giving the fish a fighting chance at survival during critical periods of their life cycle. “We’re pretty excited,” said Glen Parker, treasurer with the North Shore Streamkeepers. “This is probably one of the biggest restorations that’s been done.” Predatory behaviour As salmon are transitioning from freshwater to seawater as juveniles, and again when they return as adults to their home streams to spawn, they need to regulate the amount of salt in their bodies. That biological process takes time and it makes the fish slow and easy pickings for predators. If they’re in the brackish estuary, there’s probably no more dangerous period in their entire life cycle. “It’s like they have the flu, and you’ve got the cormorants that are on the Ironworkers Bridge, and you’ve got all the seals that concentrate there,” Parker said. “The predators Continued on A28
Neptune Terminals environmental manager Nora Romkema and North Shore Streamkeepers treasurer Glen Parker survey the mouth of Lynn Creek where an artificial rock reef is being created. PAUL MCGRATH / NSN
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