School Programs
Welcome to the Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre
It’s all about salmon here at the Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre. Our interpretive gallery features aquaria, a fun-filled habitat display complete with woody debris and many of our salmon’s prey and predators, and information on challenges to salmon survival in freshwater and ocean environments.
Regular workshops and courses on stream stewardship, habitat enhancement and fish culture are held in the classroom, and tours of the hatchery will open your eyes to a world of salmon that few people get the chance to see.
Watch our events announcements for children’s programs, special tours and community events, and learn about the life cycle of the salmon and what you can do to help salmon survive some of the many challenges they face throughout their lives.
Our centre and associated tours are open to the public between May 1 and September 30. Admission to the centre is $5 per adult, $2 per youth (5-18 years old) and $10 per family. Or, you can support the work of the salmon centre and have free admission to the centre by taking out a yearly membership in the Northern Vancouver Island Salmonid Enhancement Association, $26 per adult, $15 per youth (5-18 years old), $12 per Senior (65 years+) or $50 per family per year.
September 20th 2009 Grand Opening
Crawl through the tunnel in our giant aquarium and be surrounded by salmon, their habitat, predators and prey!
Tour our rearing facility and see how the staff at the Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre help salmon in local streams!
Be the first ones to experience our unique habitat display, and find out how YOU can help salmon.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: 8400 Byng Road, Port Hardy
next to Quatse River Campground, across
from the Pioneer Inn.
Grand Opening Day Only ~ Admission 1/2 regular price
Regular Admission:
Adult .............................. $5.00
Youth (5-18) ................. $2.00
Seniors (65 and Over) ....$2.00
Under 5 .............................Free
Family .............................$10.00
Taxes included
All proceeds directly fund salmon and habitat enhancement in local streams.
Don’t miss the fun!
- Pinks
- Can Salmon Smell?
- Fun Facts About Fish
Pink salmon live only two years. Right after they emerge from the gravel in the spring, the young pink fry enter the ocean and after a few days to several months in the estuary and nearshore zone, they move out into the open ocean in large schools. There, pink salmon feed on the small and nearly invisible animals called zooplankton, especially krill, which gives them their bright pink coloured flesh.
Salmon can sense one part of a chemical substance in 80 billion parts of water. Their keen sense of smell may be one of the ways they are able to find their way home to the streams in which they were born. 
Did you know that Pacific salmon are anadromous?
This means that the salmon breed and spend the early part of their lives in fresh water, but spend most of their time in the marine environment.
Different species and stocks of salmon spend different amounts of time in fresh water during the early part of their life cycles. For example, pink and chum salmon tend to migrate very quickly from fresh to salt water, shortly after they emerge from the gravel as fry. Sockeye and some chinook stocks tend to spend quite a bit more time in fresh water before moving to the ocean.
