Low snowpack could hurt B.C. salmon

VANCOUVER — The executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society in B.C. says he’s as worried as he’s ever been about snowpack levels in the province.

Aaron Hill says salmon depend on snowmelt to feed streams and rivers at every stage in their life cycle, from hatching out of gravel to returning from the ocean to spawn.

The province’s latest snow bulletin shows British Columbia’s average snowpack is almost 40 per cent lower than normal.

Hill says last summer’s drought killed off many fish when rivers either ran dry or the shallow water heated up to temperatures lethal for salmon.