Dear editor,

The Puntledge River Hatchery lost 95 per cent of its coho smolts this summer due to high water temperatures.

In addition to the smolt loss, the lack of cool water puts undue stress on the perpetually endangered summer run chinook population, once numbering in the thousands and now dwindling in the hundreds. So much so, in fact that they are trucked down to the facility at Rosewall Creek over the summer and trucked back in the fall to spawn.

All this agony would be unnecessary if a cold-water source was secured for the hatchery. Any water temperature above 18 puts stress on salmon stocks and the Puntledge River frequently has extended periods with temperatures well above 20C.

Having grown up in the Valley, I have had the privilege of seeing the seemingly perpetual decline of this once-great salmonid producer.

Healthy runs of both summer and fall chinook produced a fishery that was one of the tops on the Island, with numbers exceeding those in Campbell River. The early summer run fish in June would be pursued by a contingent of sports fishermen and the fall run would often have over 130 boats fishing the “Tyee Pool in Comox Bay.”

All the local fishing resorts and motels would be bustling with business at this time and we would often witness the orcas following the fish into the bay and “corral” them by the Royston Wrecks. No need to travel to Telegraph Cove to get a real whale show!

The Puntledge River has been ravaged for years, with the Hydro dam and the lower reaches dredging probably being the most damaging. The bed of the river has been scoured to bedrock and leaves little natural spawning habitat as well as little cover for salmon to escape the gaping mouths of the some 800 seals that inhabit the areas waters. Clearcut logging has taken its toll as has the development throughout the Valley.

Some of these things can be improved through remediation and indeed side channels and addition of gravel have recently been added.

However, nothing can impact this river more than high-water temperatures and it boggles me as to why we haven’t gotten on with a cold-water intake in Comox Lake for both the health of the hatchery and the Valley’s drinking water.

For the fish, you must only look at the success of hatcheries with cold water such as Robertson Creek in Port Alberni and the Qualicum River hatchery to see how this adds to the success of a fishery.

The quality of our drinking water gets more and more suspect as the summer temperatures rise and water levels fall. A deep-water intake in Comox Lake is a quick and easy solution to two persistent problems in our fair Valley.

Economically, I am told a deep-water intake would cost in the neighbourhood of $5 million to $6 million. When it was first talked about near the inception of the hatchery, the cost was around $1 million.

Returning our salmonid populations to near-historic levels would produce a tourist boom in this Valley that would far outpace the cost of this venture.

Having seen the history I can envision the future. Those who haven’t seen what that river is capable of producing can look to Alberni and see the tourism dollars that their fishery brings in a sustainable fashion year after year.

The politicians have been talking about a $14-million cost for water meters in this Valley, which does nothing for our water quality or our fish. The fish need that ancient glacial water at the bottom of Comox Lake and we need the quality of that same water. A perfect win-win situation!

Bill Morrison,

Comox