Streams are drying up in B.C. — and volunteers are racing to save fish | CBC News

Rescuers move stranded fish to deeper water, but experts warn the effort has limits

In Bessette Creek, severe drought conditions recently prompted orders limiting water use in an effort to protect salmon populations from record-low flows.

Temporary protection orders for the Salmon River watershed were also issued at the end of July, rescinded in early August to address increased wildfire risk in the region and then reissued at the end of August.

And those are just the watersheds struggling to the point of government intervention.

Bob Crandall is treasurer of the Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society on Vancouver Island.

The society cares for 16 streams connected to Lake Cowichan, and Crandall says they are getting drier each year.

To help, the society does what they call fry salvage — manually rescuing fish from drying rivers and moving them into other waterways.

"I believe if the hand of man has caused these difficulties in the ecosystems, then the hand of man should be out there, trying to make an improvement to the problems," said Crandall, who has been doing this for over 16 years.

While B.C. communities are embracing this intervention as one of the few options available to them, scientists warn this has limits and may not be a good long-term solution.

Together with the Ts'uubaa-asatx Nation and a variety of volunteers, Crandall works to gather fish — mainly salmon, trout and char — and carry them somewhere with more water.

But the work is becoming more difficult as the climate changes. The society has been doing fry salvage since 1984, and Crandall is used to seeing a kilometre or two of rivers and streams dry up over the course of a summer.

"We have noticed that streams are drying up farther upstream," he said.