Photos of Capilano River Hatchery

The hatchery is located in North Vancouver's Capilano River Park (CapilanoRiverRegionalPark). The park covers an area of 160 hectares and was established in 1926. The Cleveland Dam, built in 1954, stores clean mountain water and supplies drinking water for residents of West Vancouver, Vancouver, and Richmond. Because the Cleveland Dam blocked the route of salmon migration and destroyed the natural reproductive mode of salmon, the federal government specially designed and built this salmon hatchery here in 1971 to increase the production of Coho and Chinook salmon. Hatchery researchers nurture the young fish in artificial tanks until they reach a certain size before returning them to the sea. Visitors can see salmon swimming against the current in their laboratory and transparent tanks.