News Archive
Mark Hobson Hatchery
Salmon Stewardship
Students from Science 9, Environmental Science 11 and the Environment Club have recently been busy at the Mark Hobson Hatchery. Students worked to ensure the safe extraction of milt and eggs from coho brood stock originating from Shawnigan Creek.
Once the number of eggs from each female had been estimated, eggs were fertilized with the milt extracted from the males and placed in various incubation units. Analyses of the coho salmon returns to river systems all around South Vancouver Island have revealed a marked decrease in the size of the female spawners. This year, the egg-take from our eight females generated just over 10,000 eggs in total. That is an average of about 1,267 eggs/female. Last year's average (fecundity) was over 3,000! Reasons for this are currently a mystery.
In the meantime, the efforts of our students, in particular the E-Club crew, will help ensure a high percentage of the developing salmonids will reach the fry stage in our hatchery and be released into Shawnigan Creek early next spring. Here's hoping, anyway!
– Scott Noble, Science and Environment Club
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 Pacific Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
