The Bowker Creek egg hatch went off without a hitch and nearly bang on time, predicted by the primary waterway watcher.
In mid-March, Val Aloian, tasked with checking the water temperature and levels every day, predicted the nearly 30,000 chum eggs nestled into a rock bed would emerge about April 1. When she went down for her daily check-in, the Oak Bay woman was the one to notice the small fry swimming about on March 30.
“They were hanging out close to the incubation box, under cover of woody debris at the edge of the deep pool,” the Friends of Bowker Creek reported on social media.
RELATED: Oak Bay woman tracks Bowker water, temperature levels to keep chum eggs healthy
In a plan to replenish fish stocks in a creek previously barren for a century, the Friends of Bowker Creek Society received approval from Fisheries and Oceans Canada in August 2021 to place nearly 30,000 eggs in the creek in January.
If all went according to plan, the fry followed the current down to the Salish Sea with some anticipated to return in November 2024.
RELATED: Almost 30,000 salmon eggs planted in Oak Bay section of Bowker Creek
READ ALSO: Out of the streambed gravel comes harbinger of waning pollution in Oak Bay creek
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