Snorkeling with salmon

[Paula Schi]

sorry for the first post- guess this is maybe a more right place to ask a question...
admin-please delete my previos post in the other forum part...

hi everyone,

My husband and I are coming in this fall to go to a floatplane lodge up near Williams Lake.
I would have rather gone diving, but ok... Guess all the fish I will be seeing is the ones I catch myself...

Anyways, since I don't think we will have that much time to get some diving done; I had read about snorkeling with salmon.
There seem to be numerous companies offering guided tours in the vacinity of Vancouver Island.
Do these tours make sense (they want $120 for a tour) or can I also go on my own without having to be afraid of beeing attacked by a bear
or being arrested for doing something I am not allowed to do???
I haven't found any infos on that so far...

Maybe someone can give me some good hints. After reading about BC so far, I really would like to bring in all my diving gear...

Best regards from Germany,
Paula

 

[blatter]

The diving around Vancouver Island is fantastic - really worth making an effort to get in for some dives - some of my favorites include Race Rocks and Ogden near Victoria, and Browning Wall and 7 Tree Island north of Port Hardy (Gods Pocket dive operation is great), but there are good dives near Campbell River and Nanaimo and many other places as well.

Have snorkelled with salmon at Campbell River - when I went last time the local dive shop (Beaver Aquatics) had some printed directions and I think may have ran guided tours - more info at [http://www.connected.bc.ca/~baquatics/] ). I just did it by myself, although when I went it was just after some heavy rain and the river flow was up to the point where I think it may have been quite intimidating for many divers - but luckily I have done a fair bit of white water kayaking and have been paddling - and swimming ... in much faster flowing water so that was OK.

Normally the conditions should be more benign but it is worth checking conditions with the shop. I would suggest watching out for fishing line and carrying a knife or shears, although getting caught up would be unlikely if you stay on the surface. Not sure if there are regulations about diving with salmon elsewhere but it is probably a good idea to stay clear of where the salmon are actually spawning.

I saw quite a few salmon but it is very dependent on the time of year as to what species you see and how many fish. There are bears but not so much where you go snorkelling - more up near the hatchery.

 

[Paula Schi]

Hi Blatter- thank you very much for the info - that is what I was looking for

 

[Skookumchuck]

I would recommend against snorkelling with the salmon. B.C.s salmon runs are in serious decline and although the effect of one person snorkeling one run one time is negligable, no one raindrop feels responsible for the flood. There are plenty of places to watch the salmon without interfearing and the best of underwater B.C. is unquestionably in the ocean.

 

[nadwidny]

I would recommend against snorkelling with the salmon. B.C.s salmon runs are in serious decline and although the effect of one person snorkeling one run one time is negligable, no one raindrop feels responsible for the flood. There are plenty of places to watch the salmon without interfearing and the best of underwater B.C. is unquestionably in the ocean.

Is there any evidence that snorkelling with salmon has any effect at all on the run or is this an opinion?

 

[deepdiverbc]

I would ask a few questions from the dive op before I would go. Like, are you going to avoid spawning beds. A swim only, no walking rule wouldn't hurt either.

Personally I don't think it's a great idea to make a salmon river an eco tourism venture. These salmon are gasping their last breath as it is to make it up the river. Adding another obstacle like a bunch of divers in the river can't be a positive influence on the run.

Years ago I saw a dive op near Vancouver take a group up a spawning river. We watched from shore and thought it was no big deal until the divers decided to walk through the spawning channel instead of swim and then the kicker. A few of them decided it would be fun to grab some of the salmon and have a game of football mid channel in the river. All this occurred while the dive master watched.

 

[Paula Schi]

No way- that is an absolute no-go!

I guess there a enough idiots around who cannot understand what the animals are doing and going through. Some people just cannot respect that they are only guests- regardless of whether they are in the ocean, a lake or a stream/river. and even on land.
That's why I would like to do it on my own. I don't want anybody telling me to stand up "have a look what the fish are doing", wade here and wade there. I just want to position myself somewhere and just look and be one with the river and the surroundings.
The more people you have running around, the more the fish are stressed. I have seen it enough in Egypt and I'm sure it'll be the same thing whereever you go when crowds go diving.

 

[blatter]

It is certainly a good idea to look after the welfare of the salmon and I certainly would not like to think that I was contributing to any significant decline by my diving activities - hence the suggestion that it was probably a good idea to stay clear of where the salmon are actually spawning in my above post. And it would seem to be a good idea to avoid walking around or going in a big group. There is much more satisfaction experiencing the river by yourself than with an organized group anyway in my opinion.

The information sheet from the dive shop outlines a swim that does stay well clear of the spawning beds, and it seems that this activity is seen to be acceptable in the local community, at least. I am yet to hear of any locals complain about snorkelers being a significant cause of declining salmon stocks, although I have come across many other theories.

To put snorkeling in Campbell River in context, when I went there were lots of people just upstream trying to catch fish, an activity that would appear to be much more disturbing than a snorkeler or two drifting down with the current. Whenever I have been in Campbell River there have always been lots of fishermen along that stretch of river, but I have never seen another snorkeler.

Kayakers also use the same stretch of river and I suspect that that relatively large fast kayaks would be more disturbing than a lone snorkeler as well, although probably still negligible.

When I went, most salmon I saw didn't react at all as I drifted down, but just floated in the eddies behind rocks. As these fish have to run the gauntlet of predators such as bears and seals, it seems to me that the occasional snorkeler is not too big an issue, although if there were lots of snorkelers associated with a big "eco" tourism business or if a significant number of runs were being disturbed then maybe it would be a concern. Other species of salmon that I did not observe may also react differently to snorkelers and if that was the case I might have a different opinion.

As for people playing football with spawning salmon ... and while the dive master looked on - forget about impacts on salmon stocks that is just inexcusable from the point of view of animal welfare.

The real problem with salmon decline in BC seems to be more related to deforestation by the logging industry, overfishing and, according to many, aquaculture. Whatever the cause, clearly there is a decline in stocks of salmon which I hope can be reversed.

I would suggest that eating a salmon at a restaurant in BC has more of an impact on salmon stocks than snorkeling in the Campbell River, but would be very interested in any evidence to prove that I am wrong. If I knew that snorkeling with salmon had any significant impact I certainly would not do it.

 

[Skookumchuck]

Roderick Haig-Brown writes in "A Fisherman's Fall" of snorkelling with the salmon in the Campbell and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more informed or eloquent defender of the river. The effect of one or two or ten snorkellers is probably minor but definitely unstudied. My concern is with raising the bar on whats considered acceptable.

 

[blatter]

At the risk of taking this off topic and thrashing it to death (apologies to OP) I am not sure that any bar is being raised in any significant way. I understand that there has been snorkeling with salmon in Campbell River since well before 1997 (which was the first time I visited Vancouver Island and Campbell River, although it was another 10 years before I had the chance to get in with the salmon). From 1997 I have stayed at Campbell River or on Quadra Island quite a few times while on dive trips and talked with many local people about diving and salmon etc, and snorkeling with the local salmon seems to have become an accepted activity, although as just a visitor maybe I am missing something.

If snorkeling is considered to be too much of a disturbance, then a popular walk along the river near the hatchery provides lots of opportunities to see spawning salmon, although I guess one could argue that the presence of people on the banks could be even more of a disruption to spawning fish. Nevertheless, lots of people walk along this river all the time.

And it still seems to me that fishermen wading about in the river and actually catching and killing fish and doing it on a regular basis would seem to be much more disturbing than a passing snorkeler. There appears to be a lot of fishing going on every time I have driven past this stretch of river at any time of the day on any day of the week. The amount of line in the water is also evidence of a lot of fishing activity.

Regarding the effects of snorkeling on the salmon swimming upstream, it would be interesting to see some evidence one way or the other, and it would certainly be good idea to have this sort of information and a formal risk assessment before any large scale tourism tours started.