Monday December 6, 2021
Independent —
The climate crisis appears to be increasing the numbers of hybrid salmon in western Canada.
The hybrids of Chinook and Coho salmon were discovered in the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
While there have been rare occurrences of hybrid fish in the past, new research discovered a consistent but still small number of hybrids near the river mouth. Chinook salmon historically spawn in the area in late summer and Coho salmon in the autumn.
Close to 5 per cent of the fish sampled for the study were hybrids, according to a team led by Andres Araujo of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory and Pacific Biological Station at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Nanaimo.