Salmon returning to Vancouver Island streams with rain

Visitors watch salmon swimming upstream in the Goldstream River on Vancouver Island in October 2022. (CTV)

After a late start to Vancouver Island's rainy fall season this year, water levels in local rivers have started to rise, increasing space for spawning salmon.

The Goldstream Fish Hatchery says this year's salmon run began about two weeks late. Since the run began, roughly 1,600 fish have made their way up the Goldstream River, according to the hatchery.

Water levels in the Colquitz River in Saanich are looking good for salmon, too.

"Right now, the river is in a good position down at this end of it for the salmon to start advancing up," said Dorothy Chambers of Salmon in the City, a volunteer group that monitors salmon returns on the Colquitz.

"The rain makes all the difference," said Aaron Hill of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, a non-profit environmental advocacy group.

"Fish need cool, clean water to do their business, and with global warming we've seen an increasingly severe drought and flood cycle that's having a tremendous impact, so it's such a relief when we get the rain."

Hill says governments need to do more than just wait for the rain to fall if they hope to save and strengthen wild salmon populations amid climate change.

He called on the provincial NDP government to deliver on a campaign promise to provide stable funding for groups protecting salmon habitat.

"The Watershed Security Fund would support things like habitat restoration projects (and) local monitoring, so people can keep a closer eye on what's happening in their creeks and rivers," Hill said.

He added that last year's rehabilitation of the Cowichan River by the Cowichan Tribes could be replicated in other watersheds if the province delivers on its promise. 

The federal government could also be doing more to protect wild salmon, Hill said, criticizing the amount of time it has taken for Fisheries and Oceans Canada to allocate more than $600 million in funding promised through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative in 2021.

"They still haven't decided what their priority fish stocks are," Hill said. "We need them to get more focused."

Still, Hill said, salmon are resilient, and if the right steps are taken, they will survive as the climate changes.

With files from CTV News Vancouver Island's Todd Harmer