Salmon counting at Colquitz River cut short thanks to thieving otters

Some sneaky snackers have shut down a salmon counting project in the provincial capital. Again.

Every fall, fish fence panels are installed on the Colquitz River in Victoria, B.C., that direct cohosalmon making their way to Portage Inlet into a holding pen. This allows volunteers with the group Salmon in the Cityto count thecapturedcoho and provide numbers and health information to Fisheries and Oceans Canada..

This year, as happened in 2020,the group has decided to stop trapping the salmonbecause, as it turns out, they are creating the perfect feasting conditions for families of otters who frequent the area.

"The big ones are circling the traps like sharks," said Dorothy Chambers, speaking forSalmon in the City on CBC's On The Island Monday.

Chambers said while adult otters can't get into the trap, juvenile ones are able to "collapse their bones" and slitherinto the openings intended for fish to fall through.

She said the decision to pull the trap is a "huge disappointment" but will give the fish who are passing through a better chance of surviving, adding that one female salmonwhoevadesan otter can go on to lay up to 3,000 eggs.

Chambers said between Fisheries and Oceans Canada and conservation grants, over $6,000 was spent to improve the trap system this year, but it still proved to be not much of an obstacle forthe local bandits.

According to Chambers, the federal government is nowinstalling a camera to keep an eye on fish traffic in the river instead.

Under normal circumstances, fish counting at Colquitz River would continue until December.