The Staircase

Below the railway culvert, the river flows quietly past the German Cultural Centre to the top of “The Staircase”. This is the last of the rock faces the river descends before reaching the ocean. It is a series or eight falls, regularly spaced and all about one metre high. The regular spacing is no accident. In the 1970’s, the Nanaimo Fish and Game Club worked with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to create these pools. Holes were blasted into the smooth rock face and a concrete weir was built, tied into the rock with steel rods. Coho fry were introduced in to the Millstone in the 1980’s, above Bowen Park; they grew well and migrated out to sea as smolts and returned as adults. They were able to jump easily from pool to pool, making their way up to the top of the staircase, to spawn in the reach below the big falls. They still do.

The river also supports a small run of Coho that is quite happy to spawn in the lower 2km of the stream. Mingled among the Coho is a run of 200-600 Chum salmon that spawn in the lower 500 metres, below the staircase. Chum salmon are aggressive. The males bite each other with their long dog-like teeth. Coho are furtive, secretive creatures whose main preoccupation in life is to not be seen. Up to now the Coho have relied on the October and November rains to swell the river to make their journey up the staircase possible. With the construction of the Bowen Park side channel, cribbing and vegetation at the staircase and additional upstream works contemplated by the federal government and the City to increase the volume of year round flows through the river, it is projected that Coho may in the not too distinct future be found spawning in the headwaters of the Millstone River at Brannen lake and heaven forbid that the bay may support a recreational fishery.