The Seymour Salmonid Society has completed work on a fish fence that will help the Seymour River remain viable for fish in the aftermath of the 2014 rock slide that cut off natural spawning.
When returning salmon and steelhead arrive, they’ll be corralled into an area where volunteers can easily net them, transfer them into tanks and truck them up above the slide site.
The Pacific Salmon Foundation put up $30,000 to pay for the materials. Salmonid society volunteers assembled and installed the fence and members of the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations will monitor and maintain it. The fence is designed for canoes and kayaks to safely skid over top.
The District of North Vancouver recently granted $15,000 to the society to help pay for the trap-and-truck program and a similar request will soon be voted on by City of North Vancouver council.
The society is waiting on final written approvals to begin using low velocity explosives to break apart the rock debris and open up the river again, starting this August.
In the meantime, the province and federal government have closed almost the entire Seymour to sport fishing.
