Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Ice Fish

If you are a coho salmon fry in the Bella Coola River, its a perilous existence.  Under normal conditions there are otters, kingfishers, mergansers and herons always looking for a meal, not to mention the voracious Dolly Varden trout and other larger fish.  An unfortunate but completely normal and common event that happens is fry trapped in small pools that freeze to the bottom or lose oxygen in the remaining water under the ice.

While walking along the Bella Coola River today we encountered one such pool that was likely a lovely place in the warm weather we had in January and the coho fry looked healthy.  Unfortunately their home entombed them when the cold weather came and some 2-300 were frozen in the ice.

Now they will just be food for the crows when the ice goes.  Grizzly




1 comment:

  1. Interesting posting about the little fish trapped in the ice. Love you blog!

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