Salmon in Burnaby's Byrne Creek appear to be making a comeback after years of chemical spills.
Streamkeeper Paul Cipywnyk said volunteers have counted 36 spawning salmon - that's three times more than 2010, the year when two chemical spills wiped out the creek's fish.
"It's really nice to see fish back," Cipywnyk said. "Last year, the numbers were so low. We had new volunteers come out, and it was kind of depressing because we had nothing to show them."
Spawning season typically runs from mid-October to the end of November, but this season wrapped up in late December, Cipywnyk said. Every year, volunteers patrol the creek and count each fish they find. The best year was 2004 with 91 spawners. But since then, numbers have been declining, to a low of 10 in 2009. Last year, there were only 13.
Cipywnyk is not sure what affects the spawners' numbers.
"It's kind of a mystery. We don't really know why the numbers fluctuate, but we are really happy this year," he said. "Some of it in the past may have been caused by some of those spills."
Byrne Creek has suffered four spills since 2006. In 2010, two spills wiped out the creek's fish population, which streamkeepers try to bolster every year by releasing chum fry and coho smolts.
This spawning season, volunteers also spotted 14 "redds" or salmon nests.
"If we stay pollutionfree, we should have fry popping up in the creek, which will be excellent," Cipywnyk said.
Elmer Rudolph, of the Sapperton Fish and Game Club, also noted more coho and chum returning via the Brunette River.
This year and last, roughly 100 salmon returned, while a typical year will see about half that.
According to Rudolph, coho numbers in general have been down all throughout the south coast and the Fraser River tributaries for the last seven or eight years.
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