The Millstone River supports a spawning run of pink and chum salmon in its lower reaches. An 800 meter bypass channel around the impassable falls was completed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2007, and coho salmon now have access to the spawning grounds in the upper Millstone watershed as well as in the channel itself.
RMOT students have completed adult spawner surveys since 2007 to the present. Fish have been observed in the channel each year. A digital video camera was installed in the fishway in the upper section of the channel in 2009.
Objectives for the Millstone Project
conduct a survey of the side channel to check for and enumerate holding and spawning adult coho salmon; including monitoring the use of new spawning gravel in the side channel as well as the new gravel platform in the mainstem near Pryde Vista golf course.
Review footage from the motion-capture video camera for fish moving upstream past the channel.
Perform maintenance on the channel intake screen by removing debris that could impair performance of the camera
As available, capture and radio-tag coho salmon in the settling pond at the top end of the side channel and manually track movement in the upper Millstone to watershed to determine spawning location.