Ucluelet Fish Hatchery

Client

Department of Fisheries & Oceans Canada

Project Type

Salmon Hatchery Renovation

Returning Water to the Earth

A fish hatchery is a closed-loop system. Every drop of water taken from Thornton Creek must return to it.

Inside the hatchery, iodine is used in controlled applications—primarily to disinfect eggs and equipment, protecting developing salmon from disease. But before this water can re-enter the creek, it must be neutralized and filtered.

Historically, that system relied on natural ground filtration—but decades of structural settling and poor grading had compromised it.

Tekton rebuilt the entire drainage strategy.

The site was regraded from the ground up. New aggregate bases were installed. Water pathways were engineered to move efficiently through soil, allowing natural filtration processes to occur before returning to the watershed.

At the same time, the exterior tank area was stabilized—eliminating the flotation risk that had plagued the facility during heavy rains.

Rebuilding From the Inside Out

Inside the quonset structure, nearly 75 percent of the facility was stripped back to its shell.

The ceiling was spray-foam insulated and coated with fire-retardant paint—eliminating the persistent condensation that once “rained” inside the building. A simple, maintainable air circulation system was added, designed specifically for hatchery staff to operate without complexity.

The floor itself was entirely rebuilt.

A new concrete slab was poured with precise grading to manage drainage and house integrated mechanical systems beneath the surface. This wasn’t just a floor—it became the foundation for how water moves through the entire hatchery.

Engineering for Life Cycles

Salmon are not a single species story.

At Thornton Creek, species such as Chinook, Coho, and Chum are raised—each with distinct biological requirements. Some cannot be incubated under the same conditions as others due to differences in timing, temperature tolerance, and development cycles.

To address this, Tekton expanded the hatchery’s capacity by building a completely new incubator room alongside an enlarged existing one.

Within these rooms, eggs are placed in stacked incubation trays where water flow is carefully controlled. As the fry develop and transition to early swimming stages, they are moved into rearing tanks.

Here, another subtle but critical process takes place: flow rotation.

Every few days, the direction of water is reversed within the tanks. This encourages even development, prevents stagnation, and mimics natural environmental variability—ensuring stronger, healthier fish before release.

Power, Light, and Reliability

In a facility where timing is everything, power cannot fail.

Tekton upgraded the electrical systems throughout the hatchery, including the installation of a backup propane generator—ensuring uninterrupted operation during outages. Lighting systems were modernized, improving both efficiency and working conditions for hatchery staff.

Building in the Wild

Projects like this don’t happen in convenient locations.

Ucluelet, particularly in summer—the only viable construction window for hatchery work—is one of British Columbia’s busiest tourist destinations. Accommodations are scarce.

Tekton doesn’t rely on them.

They arrive self-sufficient—bringing their own camp, equipment, and infrastructure. It’s a model built for remote work, where access is limited and timelines are tight.

And the environment is not just remote—it’s alive.

Bears are a daily presence on site. Not a hazard to eliminate, but a reality to respect.

Waste Becomes Value

One of the defining aspects of Tekton’s approach is how they see material.

Excavated soil, mud, and aggregate—often treated as waste—were repurposed on site to solve another long-standing problem: access.

Previously, the hatchery had minimal parking. School groups visiting for field trips faced logistical challenges, with buses forced to reverse out of tight spaces.

By reshaping and redistributing existing material, Tekton created expanded parking and a functional bus turnaround—without adding cost to the project.

A System Restored

Today, the Thornton Creek Fish Hatchery is not just operational—it is resilient.

Water flows as it should.
Infrastructure supports, rather than limits, the process.
Capacity has increased.
And the system now aligns with both environmental responsibility and biological precision.

This is what restoration looks like when it’s done right.

Not just fixing what’s broken—but rebuilding in a way that respects the water, the land, and the life that depends on both.