It was a family affair last weekend for the the Port Coquitlam and District Hunting and Fishing Club.
About 14 members as well as friends and family clipped 20,000 coho fry to help boost the sports and recreation fishery.
The painstaking work involved clipping the adipose fin from the small fry, which doesn’t impair the fish in any way, says spokesman Norm Fletcher, but it makes it easier to spot the hatchery-raised fish on the water when they are large enough to be caught.
“It’s done basically to support the salmon stocks on the Coquitlam River system,” he said.
Every summer, the exercise takes place at the hatchery on the shore of the Coquitlam River, a task that has each person take a pair of scissors and a group of fish fry and gently clip off the fin, taking a break occasionally for coffee and a muffin.
The clipped fish will be kept in tanks until they are released next spring as “super smolts,” large, healthy adolescent fish ready for their ocean journey.
In addition, earlier this spring, another 40,000 coho fry were released and will overwinter in the river while 25,000 chinook salmon fry were also let go but they will head right out to sea.
