Nanoose Streamkeepers

A epic journey.

The light breeze blowing along the streambed brought smells of skunk cabbage in flower, a pungent aroma to say the least.  Quietly sitting on the stream bank watching the world unfold as life began a new day with dragon flies hovering over the pools, wild Coho fry suddenly appear swimming too and froe feasting on the early morning hatch of bugs as the sunlight filtered down trough the tree canopy. Nice and fat this spring with many more visible as the feast continues, a large shadow slowly moves from under a log to revel a nice sized cutthroat trout cruising around gobbling up bugs.

The wild fry do not seem to be one bit perturbed by the trout’s presence though they keep a collective eye on its movements at all times ever ready to flee at the slightest indication that they may become breakfast also.

After many weeks growing up the wild fry had learned the hard way all about trout’s and their appetite as it did not take too long to figure out their moves and now could move as one to evade being their next meal.

Water Ouzel was a whole different story, sure they could rock dive and avoid the Heron and if quick could evade even the Kingfisher but the ouzel was a whole different story.

Diving into the water Ouzel was able to swim / fly along under water for quite a distance before emerging with a beak full of bugs or in the case of the fry one split second of lost attention and you could become a very tasty meal for Ouzel.

Rocky Raccoon some times came along to fish though rather clumsy compared to some predators they still could reak havoc when the pools began to dry up on a dry year. Luckily a small band of humans came along once in awhile and when the water began to dry up and pools became smaller and smaller the humans showed up again but this time they had buckets and nets to capture the fry before the water went subsurface and unless they could wiggle deep into loose gravel or under rocks which still would retain some moisture they would surely become food or worse die a death of drowning in air. 

This was a very stressful time for the fry with all their instincts telling them they had become lunch for these humans but deep within their collective memory they seemed to remember this had happened before in another life.

Being netted and dumped from pool to bucket then into a great big tank with many other family groups all becoming mixed around and jostled too and froe while the old truck the tank sat in puttered off up into the surrounding mountains.

As the old truck rolled along they felt the air pressure change as they rose higher and higher into the watershed. Rattling down an old rocky trail the old truck finally backed down into the lakes edge and came to a jolting stop.

Finally a break from the rocking and rolling and swimming around in circles they felt a great splash as the tank came to rest on the lakes shore, Swoosh, suddenly the tank was tilted over to one side as all the water began to flow towards the lake. Sploosh, the water poured out of the tank into the lake water among the bulrushes and aquatic vegetation in the shallows. With one big flow out into the lake swam the fry into their new home for the summer months. Warmer water made them slowly swim along the shore feeling their way into cooler water where the oxygen was more abundant making breathing easier after the journey in the crowded tank.

As the day progressed they now where starting to reacquaint themselves with their family groups until most where back with their siblings.

Over the summer months the fry grew exceedingly fast due to the huge biomass of bugs within the lake. Along with plenty of food and awesome habitat they now really had to be on the ball in regards to predators. They could swim deep enough to avoid any avian predators unless they ventured into the shallows where Heron was standing perfectly still awaiting the unwary fish that may chance to swim by.

Out into the deep dark waters of the lake they had other concerns, larger trout more aggressive and consequently hungrier.  Though they had experienced Sculpin when in the stream they had seen nothing like the monsters that inhabited the lake. Huge Sculpin lying along the bottom awaiting their next meal made for a very wary fry.

Ten times the size of anything they had seen in the stream with huge teeth ready to suck in the fry given half a chance made them very wary which unknown to them would be a fast learning curve which would serve them well later in life. 

As the summer months faded the water begins to cool and the once small fry now fat from a long summer of feeding began to think about moving down stream to spend the winter months back within the lower reaches where they had been born. Having no memory of the journey downstream they slowly ventured into the lakes outlet flow finding their way by sheer luck. Once in awhile over the winter months a big rain event would occur causing a great rush of water downstream carrying those who had not found shelter in some small backwater or adjacent wetland off the main channel with it downstream.

As the water rushed downstream it carried many fry with it down ever further from the lake rushing over falls sometimes slow and steady other times uncontrollably falling as they tried to swim upstream as the waterfall fell down and down in a never ending cascade seemingly falling to oblivion.  Swimming frantically in frothy bubbling water they soon found quite water within the lower reaches close to their place of birth.

 On a cold year they would have to bury themselves deep in the rocks to avoid being frozen alive. Luckily they had the ability to go into stasis for those short periods when the whole stream seemed to be frozen solid. As winters cold began to recede they soon started to feed as more and more bugs began to hatch and where soon joined by their newly emerged relatives from last falls spawn. During this time as the water began to warm they could tell the newly emerged fry all about their journey downstream and the perils they had encountered especially that last big waterfall which seemed never to end.  Now they had become fat and where now starting to turn a nice silver colour as there regulatory system began to change they ventured further and further downstream with some even venturing out into the estuary habitat.

Here the water was brackish as they swam back and forth venturing further and further along the foreshore now learning to feed on other fish much smaller than they as they now took on the role as predator. With an abundance of forage fish from newly hatched herring to Needle fish they became more and more adventuresome some times swimming back into their home stream or sometimes venturing into other nearby streams.

Eventually they started to move deeper and deeper into the Salish Sea. Here there were more perils than they had ever imagined but thanks to being totally wild Salmon they had some genetic instincts from their parents and instinctively knew that those dark shadows way down in the deep where to be avoided at all costs.

 Saying goodbye to their home stream they now had a long epic journey ahead as they swam further and further into the seemingly never ending ocean. Some decided that there was enough to explore within the Salish Sea and stayed relatively close to their natal stream but those more adventuresome swam further out into the wide open Pacific ocean where wonders abounded as they made their epic journey over the next two years even venturing as far as Russia and Alaska feeding on such abundance they grew amazingly fast before their internal clock began to turn them homeward bound. Making it back to their home stream was no easy task anymore for as they approached the coast they had to be very lucky to avoid the nets of the fisherman both on the high seas and all down the coast almost right unto their home stream.   Once they made it back into the Salish Sea they had to run the seemingly endless gauntlet of sport fisherman who lined the shores and fished from boats right up to the mouth of their stream. Making it back the lucky few that survived now hoped the stream had enough water to allow them to swim to within feet of their birthplace. As they swam into the stream they began to eye each other up and make their selection of mate. She was looking for that big strong lucking male while he was looking for a nice healthy female who would be his mate until they had spawned and she said her last farewell to him and swam off to die. He remained for a while trying to protect the eggs for as long as he was able before he too became too weak and drifted off to die. Dieing was not the end as now they became food for a myriad of bugs and their nutrients helped to fertilize the algae and surrounding forest from all the carcasses carried by Bear, Eagle and other animals sometimes deep into the forest providing food for the trees who in turn helped regulate the stream through filtering the water, providing shade for cool water and dropping needles and leaf matter into the streams further providing nutrients for all life within. Now buried deep within the substrate of the stream the fertilized eggs now had to over winter before they too would begin their own epic journey of life.