There was a great turnout this year at the annual Chinook salmon fry release! We kicked the event off with a BBQ starting at 11:30 am and our amazing cooks and helpers prepped a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers for the hungry participants. We also had 2 delicious cakes from Klondike Cakes to indulge the many sweet tooths and also to celebrate the retirement of Yukon Energy’s Fish Hatchery Manager, Lawrence Vano.
Lawrence arrived and we had a surprise retirement party with several speakers sharing words with the crowd about the amazing contributions he has made to salmon conservation and stewardship over his 37+year career at the Whitehorse Rapids Fish Hatchery!
Lawrence and his team then began to carefully collect buckets of fry from the holding tank and pass them to their awaiting fans. About a dozen or so of the fry were put into ziplock bags for each of the children. The fry were taken to the creek edge excitedly and carefully released.
It took a little over an hour for the YFGA Directors and very excited children to release the 2000 salmon fry into Wolf Creek just south of Whitehorse. These salmon have begun their amazing five-to-seven-year journey down to the ocean to mature and then return back up the Yukon River. This journey marks one of the longest Chinook salmon migrations in the world on a system that is seeing increasing pressure on salmon stocks throughout all parts of the lifecycle.
Special thank you to Lawrence and his staff, Yukon Energy, and all the YFGA Directors who set up, cooked, served, cleaned and packed up.
We would also like to thank Yukon Energy for their ongoing support of the event.
We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!
