Thornton Creek Hatchery

The Thornton Creek Hatchery is located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, on the North side of Ucluelet Harbour - 1Okm from the town of Ucluelet near Port Albion.  This salmon enhancement project raises and releases hundreds of thousands of salmon into water ways in Barkley and Clayoquot Sounds each year.

The Thornton Creek Hatchery harvests eggs from returning salmon as they are about to spawn in the creek, or other waterways the hatchery works in.  Then they take the eggs back to the hatchery, fertilize and incubate, hatch and raise them, and then release them back into the wild. 

Last spring Thornton Creek released over 500, 000 Chinook and around 600, 000 Chum.  Coho is raised in holding tanks for a year and around 50,000 are released in April/May.  They will continue to release salmon into particular water systems until its number of returning salmon increases to a healthy level and it is able to sustain itself.  Then they move on and enhance another system. 

History of Thornton Creek Hatchery

The Thornton Creek Hatchery was initially started in 1976 to test the Japanese method of rearing chum salmon in concrete keeper channels. The capacity was to raise 1. 1 million eggs, producing 33,000 adult fish with first returns by 1979.

The Hatchery was to be expanded to raise 6 million chum eggs in 1984 with adult returns of up to 180,000. Chum Salmon were successfully raised at the Hatchery for a few years, however, the returning chum created management problems with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and raising of chum was temporarily discontinued.

In 1981 a Society was formed by local people to manage the Hatchery in an attempt to enhance local rivers and streams, and restock the deteriorating salmon returns and to raise endangered chinook and coho in the Tofino - Ucluelet area. They currently enhance chinook from two different systems in Barkley Sound also a few coho and chum creeks in this area.

The Thornton Creek Hatchery started by raising 516,000 Coho and 300,000 Chinook, for release into the Ucluelet Harbour. The Hatchery now raises 600,000 Chinook, 600.000 Chum, and 100,000 Coho.

The Thornton Creek Hatchery also works with a PIP project in Tofino and capture broodstock from Clayoquot Sound Rivers to help bring back chinook and coho runs in this area. They have a separate Hatchery site in Barkley Sound, on Toquart Lake where we raise Toquart River chinook.

Currently, the Thornton Creek Enhancement Society consists of a Board of Directors who represent the Sport and Commercial Fisheries, local First Nations Bands, Marina Operators, Forestry Workers and local Business Peoples. The Hatchery employs two year-round full-time workers, and up to six part-time workers for Fall brood stock and adult salmon enumeration, and so is involved with the Tofino Salmon Enhancement Society.

The Hatchery is busy from end of September to end of May. We have tours for visitors and schools, there are a lot of tourists around in the fall to visit, mostly to see the bears eating fish but we do not promote bear watching due to liability concerns.

Salmon Enhancement

Chinook

Most years the Thornton Creek Hatchery has done up to 300,000 Chinook from Toquart River. These fry are then raised in net pens on Toquart Lake, where they are fed daily for 90 days in the Spring. They are usually raised to 5- 7grams and released in late June. The Hatchery Chinook stocks are now starting to re-build themselves, and successfully returning in larger numbers.

Coho

Coho are raised for approximately 14 months, and released at 12-14 grams. The Thornton Creek Hatchery has raised and released Upper Kennedy Lake Coho and Maggie Lake Coho, usually consisting of 50,000 - 1 00,000 fry raised to 1 gram, and released as fed fry back into these systems. There is a Volunteer Project on site that raises Coho from Lost Shoe Creek, where stream gravel placement is done.

Coho Fascinating Facts
Class: Osteichthyes "Bony Fish"
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Sairnonidae
Average size: 1.3 kg - 14 kg.
Life cycle: 3 years.
Coho generally spawn in streams.

Chum

The Thornton Creek Hatchery also still raises some Chum from Salmon, Mercer and Mercantile Creek in the Ucluelet Harbour. However, for any number of reasons the Churn numbers have been slowly declining in the last 10 years or so.