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Published: October 22nd 2013
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October 21, 2013 – Cowichan to Vancouver (Monday)
We’re counting down the days ‘til the end. Sadly it’s our last day in this wonderful house in Cowichan Bay but there’s no one coming in today so we’ve been given the chance to hang around. We’ve booked a 5pm ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen so have time to visit Goldstream Provincial Park on our way through. We walk along the river, spotting lots of Chum Salmon.
The autumn brings with it the Salmon Run. Their time to return, all the way from Alaska, to the river, within, get this…a metre of their birth place! It’s fascinating stuff and luckily there’s a very nice and informative (better get this right!) naturalist standing close by who provides us with all the information we could want.
This is apparently our lucky day as we are literally watching the mating of salmon in these incredible clear waters. The female is thrashing her tail creating a nest (known as a redd) for the eggs while a fair few males fight between themselves as to who will do the honours. The victorious male then swims alongside the female, who, once the redd
Fighting for the Female!
Male Chum Salmon fighting is ready, releases her eggs at which point the male has just seconds to release “milt” to fertilize the eggs. The female then covers the nest with gravel and moves upstream a little way in order to repeat the process.
Once the salmon has entered the stream and reached the spawning area she will only live for 1 – 2 weeks in which time she has to choose her nest or “redd” area, defend the territory against others females looking to do the same thing, dig the redd, lay her eggs and bury her eggs. Not to mention she and the males have just travelled down from Alaska where they’ve been living for a few years since having swum up just after they were born. It’s quite the journey of life and one that has fascinated many for years. How does the salmon know where to return to? A built in sat nav? Well it turns out it’s the combination of a number of things, from the incredible sense and memory of smell to the use of magnetic fields to even the suggestion of celestial navigation. A little far fetched perhaps but apparently experiments have suggested salmon may use
Misty Sunset
Ferry from Van Island to Vancouver the stars to find their way home.
We leave the salmon and Goldstream Provincial Park a little more knowledgeable and also aware of just how fragile areas like this are. According to our helpful naturalist of all the eggs laid only 0.1% will survive to become adult salmon. All that work for just .1% even if she does lay several thousand during the course of a few weeks.
So those eggs are hugely important and the park does everything it can to ensure their safety.
Tourists are requested not to wear bright colours as this can distract the salmon from mating. It’s definitely not a place to bring your dog or swim in the river and it’s certainly not a place to try your hand at gold panning as our guide book (dated around 15 years ago) suggested we do, even going as far as to advise equipment and method. Luckily the use of Google beforehand had informed us of this so we didn’t turn up with a steel bowl and dreams of making millions.
I assume once upon a time this river was known for its gold but now it’s known for its salmon eggs
Heron
Goldstream Provincial Park and priorities have changed somewhat over the years.
So we continue on our journey too and take the 5pm ferry off of the island. It’s a fascinating trip as, although it’s a lovely day again, there’s a lot of fog hanging around. Which means a lot of use of the ship’s horn and a very eerie crossing. We’ve chosen this particular crossing because it passes very close by the Gulf Islands and makes for a more interesting trip and today it’s quite spooky watching the landmasses appear out of the fog. There’s a beautiful light across the water as the sun begins to set. I wonder whether the captain is at all concerned in conditions like this or whether in this day and age with all the technology they’ve got it makes little difference.
We check into the Landis Hotel and Suites again. It’s the spacious apartment type hotel with two big bedrooms, a large bathroom, sitting room and separate dining area with floor to ceiling windows on 2 sides. There’s also breakfast to look forward to and a swim in the pool if we want one!
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