Volunteers with Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES) are once again amazed at the number of coho smolts they are counting in Shelly Creek, a small tributary that enters the Englishman River just upstream of the Orange Bridge in Parksville.

Last year, by May 31, everyone involved in the smolt counting was thrilled to see that they had recorded nearly 3,000 fish in the 6 weeks of monitoring. This year, in less than 2 weeks, they have recorded 3,119 fish.

“Is this a miracle, or not”, said Faye Smith, MVIHES project coordinator, “that so many juvenile coho, as well as Rainbow and Cutthroat trout and other species, fight the odds in these small urban streams and live out their life cycle?”

These fish face a struggle - the water quality is poor, the coho habitat is very limited and the invasive American bull frog is taking its toll on them.  Things will not get any better when they reach the estuary where they expect to fatten up and get used to the salt water. The Canada Goose has destroyed almost all of the estuary grasses that provide feeding channels, cover and shade. One can only hope ocean conditions will be good for them.

Smith continues, “So let’s put an end to the idea that ditches are not important enough to protect as fish habitat. Shelly Creek has been ditched, culverted and pretty much twisted like a pretzel from its headwaters in Errington to its confluence with the Englishman and look how it is producing”. This is a good news story.

Volunteers are installing the smolt counting trap again this year in Shelly Creek, a tributary of the Englishman River. In the first 4 days nearly 600 coho smolts were counted and some of them were measured. It certainly indicates the value of the small stream for fish production - even a heavily impacted stream such as Shelly Creek.  Daily monitoring will continue until the end of May, Please contact us if you want to help.