Related Attractions
About
Capilano River Hatchery is a salmon fish hatchery located north of the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge in Capilano River Regional Park, North Vancouver. Capilano River Hatchery was built along Capilano River due to the construction of the Cleveland Dam in 1954 which blocked the route of coho and steelhead salmon traveling up the river to spawn. In order to save the salmon population, the permanent solution was to build Capilano Hatchery to rear and release salmon below the Cleveland Dam.
The The 3 million dollar fish hatchery took two years to built and was completed in 1971. The fish hatchery not only help to preserve the salmon population it also enables scientific research and public education. Key areas to see in the Capilano River Hatchery are:
- Fish Ladder: see migrating adults salmon through the glass window sides of the fishway. During peak run times, the ladder is solid with fish.
- River Weir: The concrete weir prevents the fish from continuing any further upstream, diverting them up the fishway to the capture trap.
- Public Viewing Area: interpretive displays in the public viewing area provide visitors with information on the hatchery, species of Pacific salmon, watershed locations, fish transplants and fish culture.
- Juvenile Rearing Area: contains blue rearing troughs for rearing of fry. The feeding is done every half hour when the fry are first ponded, and then as they get bigger feeding frequency gets less. After the fry have grown to approximately 2 grams they are transferred into the large concrete Rearing Ponds.
Best Times
Please note different salmon species come at different time of the year. And the best time to see are
- Chinook Adults: October - November
- Coho Adults: June - November
- Steelhead Adults: March - April
- Coho Juveniles: All Year
- Chinook Juveniles: March - May
Minimum Time Needed
2 Hours
Hours
November - March 8 AM - 4 PM
April 8 AM - 4:45 PM
May 8 AM - 7 PM
June - August 8 AM - 8 PM
September 8 AM - 7 PM
October 8 AM - 4:45 PM
Admission Fee
Free
Location
URL
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sep-pmvs/projects-projets/capilano/capilano-eng.htm