The Seymour River flows from a large reservoir into Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia. It is named after Frederick Seymour, the governor of British Columbia from 1864 until his death from acute alcoholism aboard the HMS Sparrowhawk at Bella Coola in 1869. The upper portion of the river and the reservoir are part of the Seymour watershed, which is managed by the Metro Vancouver Regional District. This is a political body and corporate entity designated by provincial legislation as one of 29 regional districts in British Columbia.

The Metro Vancouver watersheds supply potable water to approximately 2.4 million residents in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. They serve an area covering over 642,560 acres (260,035 ha), including cities such as Vancouver, Langley, and Richmond. From west to east, the watersheds are the Capilano, with 48,297 acres (19,545 ha); the Seymour, with 30,579 acres (12,375 ha); and the Coquitlam, with 50,560 acres (20,461 ha). The Seymour River has been the main water supply for North Vancouver since 1907, when the first intake was built. The original Seymour Dam was constructed in 1927, and the present-day Seymour Falls Dam was completed in 1961.

The Seymour Salmonid Society is a non-profit organization that operates the Seymour River Fish Hatchery and Education Centre below the Seymour Falls Dam. The primary aim of the hatchery is to enhance fish stocks in the Seymour River, which have been cut off from traditional spawning grounds by the dam’s construction. The hatchery collects eggs from returning adult salmon, fertilizes them, and raises the alevins into fry, which are then released as smolts. It raises coho, pink, and chum salmon, as well as steelhead trout, until they are ready to migrate to the ocean. Each year, the hatchery raises 30,000 steelhead and 120,000 coho smolts. Of these, 40,000 fry are released into the reservoir above the dam, around 35,000 into habitat projects, and approximately 45,000 are released as smolts. Biennially, about 500,000 pink and 500,000 chum smolts are released into the Seymour watershed. Read more here and here. Explore more of the Seymour River and Burrard Inlet here: