Thornton Creek Hatchery: bears and salmon
The Thornton Creek Salmon Hatchery is only a short drive from Ucluelet. This hatchery and creek are one of the best places to observe a miracle of the natural world: the annual salmon spawn. And it is also a great place to watch bears in the wild - especially this time of year.
The hatchery itself is part of a salmon enhancement project that raises baby salmon to be released in streams and rivers throughout the Clayoquot/Barkley Sound region. Scientists still do not fully understand what has caused the decline of the salmon. Some factors include: a history of overfishing; industrial logging, which clogs up streams with mud and logging debris; and salmon farming, which results in non-native salmon species escaping to the wild and which also may introduce and concentrate diseases that pass to wild salmon populations.