Federal minister, MP focus on salmon with visit to South Surrey hatchery
Published 9:30 am Thursday, March 5, 2026
It may be a small, volunteer-run hatchery in South Surrey, but it has sure made a big impact.
Little Campbell River Hatchery, which opened in 1982 at the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club, had some federal interest recently, when South Surrey-White Rock MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries Ernie Klassen visited — with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans herself, Joanne Thompson.
“(Klassen) is a big supporter of the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club and the hatchery and all that we do,” SFGC past president Diana Barkley noted. “So when (Thompson) was coming out here on another trip, he organized a stop at our hatchery … we conducted a tour of the hatchery and told her how it all works, with the coho and the salmon coming back up the stream to spawn every four years …we were able to showcase the things we’ve done since we opened the hatchery in 1982.”
Volunteers count the salmon that come upstream and report to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and also do an egg take from healthy coho and chinook salmon each year, Barkley explained.
“This year we did 103,000 eggs … we estimate that every year for the last 40-plus years, we’ve put over 100,000 salmon back into the river. And if you do the math on that, that’s over four million salmon. Those are rough numbers, but pretty pretty close to the truth,” she said. “So while we’re a small operation, over the course of four or five decades, we certainly have made an impact.”
Barkley said she feels hatcheries have an important voice and role in the fishing industry, as well as with salmon conservation.
The hatchery suffered during the atmospheric river flooding in 2021, she said, noting their goal is to build a newer, larger facility on higher ground that will double the hatchery’s current capacity.
While they’ve raised about $400,000 over the past three years toward that goal, they need closer to $2 million, but Barkley is optimistic they’ll raise the needed funds for that plan and perhaps, get a little help from the federal government.
“Hopefully we’ve encouraged them to bring back a program they had, which was a B.C. salmon enhancement renovation innovation fund … a few years back, $200 million went to B.C.hatchery and habitat programs. So, we want them to bring that fund back again — we’re ready to put shovels in the ground.”
Receiving $2 million from that fund or from the federal government “would make us happy. Very happy,” Barkley said, but added she didn’t know when they might hear whether or not that’s going to happen. “We’re hoping that we can start construction this year.”