Marine Harvest Canada partners with local groups to improve wild fish survival

Marine Harvest Canada has teamed up with a number of British Columbia organisations in a bid to improve wild coho salmon and trout survival.

The company has joined the Tsolum River Restoration Society, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Comox-Strathcona Regional District, and the City of Courtenay to build two bridges over Towhee Creek on Courtenay’s Regional Fairgrounds.

“The bridges are important to the protection of the creek bed which provides over-wintering and rearing habitat for coho and trout,” says Jack Minard of the Tsolum River Restoration Society.

Marine Harvest Canada donated $6000 - one-third of the hard costs required to build the bridges.

“This is an important local project driven by volunteers who have been working to protect fish habitat in the creek for over ten years,” says Clare Backman, director of environmental compliance and community relations at Marine Harvest Canada.

“Creeks like this may dry up in the summer but still play an important role in rearing salmon and trout come fall and winter. These bridges will protect the creek bed for years to come and that will be a huge benefit to these very young fish.”

The support for the Tsolum River Restoration Society is just one of several salmon enhancement projects supported by Marine Harvest Canada in 2007-2008. In the past year, Marine Harvest Canada has donated over $100,000 in equipment and cash to local salmon enhancement societies.

Marine Harvest Canada produces 45,000 tonnes of farmed salmon year round in the Pacific waters around Vancouver Island. The company employs 500 people from Duncan to Klemtu.