‘Devastating’ blue substance kills thousands of fish at B.C. hatchery

A Metro Vancouver fish hatchery has suffered a major loss after an unknown blue substance from a creek killed thousands of fish.

The substance came from Hyde Creek in Port Coquitlam and got into the tanks at the Hyde Creek Fish Hatchery.

“I got the fateful phone call from one of the guys who came in to clean the tanks,” Terry Sawchenko, manager of the Hyde Creek Hatchery told Global News.

“And when I came in, literally the top of the tank, the water, the water level, it was just packed with dead fish. As soon as I took a look at that, I knew we had major problems.”

The fry in the tanks was the hardest hit, although there was also a loss of more mature salmon in the holding pond.

Several chum had just been released, otherwise, it might have been an even greater disaster because the fish are at a vulnerable stage.

“We were literally counting out the dead as we were netting them out,” Sawchenko said.

“So we ended up with something around 2,200 dead out of 13,000 fish. So that that was around 20 per cent.”

1:45 Thousands of fish killed in Coquitlam hatchery

Sawchenko said the fish have not yet developed any immunities, which was part of the reason that the death toll was so high.

“We’re trying to aim for 10,000 fish to put into that pond,” he added. “Now, we’re well below that, courtesy of this pollution.”

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirms it is investigating.

While it is not known what caused this latest fish kill, in the past, cement tailings or chlorine from swimming pools have ended up in the creek and even soap from cars being washed in driveways.