State Investigating Catastrophic Salmon Deaths at Pierce County Hatchery

— from KING5 News —

Investigators are examining whether the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife followed protocol before a power outage killed more than 6 million salmon at a Gig Harbor hatchery.

The Minter Creek Hatchery is like a nursery for salmon. The fish are raised from eggs all the way to juveniles ready for release.

The Gig Harbor hatchery suffered a catastrophic loss of more than 6 million Chinook salmon last weekwhen a windstorm knocked out power, and a backup generator failed.

“These drawers each hold a little over 5,000 in each drawer. A portion of the population has suffocated. The rest of them are in fine shape and managed to get through this with us pumping some water into that head trough,” explained South Puget Sound Hatchery Operations Manager Jim Jenkins.

Jenkins says the loss is a little less than the 100 percent initially assumed dead. The total is closer to 90 percent, which is still enough to arouse anger among fishermen and orca advocates. 

The Chinook were being raised as part of efforts to increase food for the Southern Resident killer whales.

Fishermen are also upset that already bad salmon returns are now going to be worse, despite an increase in fees they’re paying to the state. In messages to the Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Kelly Susewind, charter fishermen expressed their discontent and called for accountability.

Jenkins says they’ll get fish from at least one other hatchery, so they will release some salmon this spring, but it will be less than half of what was planned.

For now, a good portion of the recently hatched Chinook will live in large ponds outside, which runs counter to protocol.

SOURCE: KING5 News :: Read full story