Academics
Hatchery Helps Make a Difference
In addition to teaching students at Shawnigan about conservation, environmental stewardship, the salmon life cycle, and the importance of salmon to our part of the world, the School’s Mark Hobson Hatchery is contributing to the growth of the salmon run in Shawnigan Creek.
This year marked the fourth year in a row that the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society has transported a record number of fish past the falls so they can spawn in the upper reaches of the creek. The society moved 985 coho salmon this year, surpassing expectations in a year when other streams on southern Vancouver Island saw low returns. Fish return to spawn every three years, so it is important to note that three years ago, 404 fish returned. Three years before that, the number was around 200, and three years before that, just five fish came back to spawn in Shawnigan Creek.
Some of the fish that came back to spawn in Shawnigan Creek this year would have been released from the School’s hatchery three years ago.
Some of the coho that returned to the creek this year were used as broodstock at the School’s hatchery, providing eggs and milt (sperm) that students combine to begin the fertilization process. Fertilized eggs then went into an incubator, where they will stay until they reach their eyed stage, under the careful watch of Grade 11 students. In February, the fry will move into tanks in the hatchery, and in March or April, they will be released into the wild to begin the cycle anew.
Many students are involved in the process. About 15 students accompanied Hatchery Lead and Experiential Learning Instructor Mr. Louis Chancellor to the Shawnigan Creek fish trap in mid-November, where they helped volunteers from the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society move fish up the falls and captured some for hatchery broodstock. About 50 Grade 9 students were involved in doing egg takes and initiating the fertilization process, and two classes of Grade 11s will monitor the eggs as they incubate and hatch.
Everything done in the hatchery ties into the science curriculum, teaching things like cell division, sexual reproduction and stewardship. The Mark Hobson Hatchery has been part of Shawnigan Lake School since 1980, and while many schools incorporate the salmon fishery into their programs, Shawnigan is the only school in BC with its own hatchery on campus.
Two Grade 12 students — Zoë B. and Bea H. — took a science project based around their work at the hatchery and a water-enrichment experiment to the Japan Super Science Fair earlier this fall.
The hatchery was established in 1980 by Mr. Mark Hobson’70 (Groves’), a Shawnigan graduate who returned to teach science and run the outdoors program. Mr. Hobson spent nine years teaching at the School, and now paints and runs an art gallery in Tofino. More information about his artwork can be found at markhobson.com
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
