Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery

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Posts by David Gowing:

The Audubon’s Annual Christmas Bird Count at the Hatchery

Great Blue Heron at the Hatchery. Credit: Oscar Kelley (2021)

Every year across the US and Canada, avid birders set off to participate in the largest annual bird census in North America: The Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). CBC participants set out to count all the birds in a 15-mile diameter circle over the span of 24 hours. This 24-hour period happens on one calendar day (per circle) between December 14th and January 2nd every year.

The Christmas Bird Count was started by ornithologist Frank M. Chapman in 1900 as an alternative to a Christmas hunting tradition. With the help of 27 birders, Chapman started this century-long tradition with the simple idea of counting birds, instead of killing them. Since its conception, the CBC has provided useful data to the scientific community, informing reports like the 2012 EPA Climate Change Report, and Audubon’s 2014 Climate Change Report.  

The Eastside Audubon Society includes the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery as a part of their 15-mile diameter circle that is surveyed during the CBC. In 2020, and again this year, FISH will be assisting Eastside Audubon Society leaders in their census of the hatchery grounds. As many know, the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery is an urban wildlife refuge, rich with animals, bugs, and plants that create a complex ecosystem ideal for many native bird species. Last year during the CBC, 20 species of birds were counted at the hatchery including species of sparrows, starlings, gulls, mergansers, and more! Stay tuned to see what birds are spotted at the hatchery during the 2021-2022 CBC! 

Update: Final Birds from 2021 CBC at the Hatchery

Dark-eyed Junco 36
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
House finch 16
Mallard ducks 8
Common Merganser 2
Northern Spotted Towhee 9
Glaucous-winged gull 6
Cooper’s hawk 2
Song Sparrow 2
English sparrow 10
Anna’s hummingbird 3
American Robin 25 (in the large Holly tree across the ally from the
library parking garage)
American Crow 29
Great Blue heron 1
Rock pigeons 55

TOTAL 212

Guided Tours

Now Scheduling Fall 2022 School/Group Tours!!

We are delighted to be able to hold guided tours again this fall starting the week of September 6th and going until November 11th — two whole months of touring! With the hatchery reopened for public visitation after two long years, feel free to drop by for a self guided tour, or to visit some of the displays and salmon fry that live at the hatchery year-round! Guided tours are also available for Spring/Summer 2022 on an as-requested basis. Please contact us at least 2 weeks before your desired tour date to schedule.

Tours are $5 per person*

Here’s to a great year full of cool, flowing water, eggs, alevins, frys, fingerlings, smolts and returning adults! Keep ’em coming home!

Your Friends at FISH

*Some financial assistance available. Contact FISH for more details. 

FISH small group tours at the hatchery (2020)

Tour Sign-Up Links

General Public and Family Tours - CONTACT US
School Tours - CONTACT US

Peter Gowell, Treasurer

Peter Gowell

Peter is honored to serve on the FISH Board. He brings the shared commitment and purpose of promoting conservation, education, environmental sustainability and supporting the overall mission of FISH.

A native Seattleite growing up on the Eastside, he was introduced to the significance of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery in grade school (as well as the magic of Boehm’s Candies chocolates). Trips into the Issaquah Alps along with experiences with both Boy Scouts and Mountaineers heightened his awareness and the need to secure healthy fish habitats to support the runs of chinook, coho, sockeye, kokanee, trout and steelhead found in Issaquah Creek.

A CPA by training, he has 20+ years of finance & accounting leadership experience with a large professional services firm, experience beneficial to continuing the strong stewardship of FISH.

Orcas Eat Chum, Too!

Orca eating salmon

Recent research in the Salish Sea and off the Washington coast examined the orca’s seasonal diet. It is well documented that orca prefer Chinook, presumably because of their larger size, but it turns out “Chinook salmon were identified as an important prey item year-round, averaging ~50% of their diet in the fall, increasing to 70–80% in the mid-winter/early spring, and increasing to nearly 100% in the spring. Other salmon species and non-salmonid fishes, also made substantial dietary contributions.” How did the researchers establish this detailed diet analysis? Poop. More specifically, analysis of feces collected from October to May 2004-2017. The authors reach a number of conclusions, ranging from noting that most Chinook consumed consisted of 50-80% hatchery fish, and that the unexpected diversity in species consumed suggests that a successful orca recovery strategy include more than just Chinook enhancement.

Read the Article

Awesome Views of Our Very Own Issaquah Creek

Brian Foote, co-founder of EarthViews, sent us a special treat: a view of Issaquah Creek from the hatchery weir down to Confluence Park. This amazing technology gives you the ability to virtually ‘walk’ down the middle of Issaquah Creek, spinning your head for a 360 degree view — all from the comfort of your desk chair or smartphone! Check it out. We’d love to get your feedback! Should we do more of the Creek — maybe from the mouth to the headwaters? Maybe do this multiple times per year? Tell us what you want.

Steven Holland

Steve Holland is delighted to serve on the FISH board and feels that it is all our responsibility to pay it forward for the next generation (especially his daughters who love to fish) to keep the salmon coming home.  He has been volunteering in multiple roles at the hatchery for the last two years and feels more can be done to educate and build towards the future – together as a community.

Steve learned how to fish in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with his Dad, uncles, and cousins for Muskie, Northern Pike, Coho, and Steelhead.  Since then, he has fished around the world from New Zealand to Russia, but Chinook remains his favorite.  Steve launches out of both Edmonds and Point Roberts Marina with his Grady-White.

Steve is quasi-retired and is a recovering Chief Information Officer for multiple Fortune 100 companies.  Since he still loves technology, he has found himself helping startup companies in Bellevue and San Francisco get launched and provides enterprise “Crisis CIO” help when needed. 

Madeline Fish

Madeline Fish is passionate about community engagement and the opportunity to educate Eastside residents regarding the Issaquah Fish Hatchery. An Issaquah resident since 1992, she loves living and hiking on Squak Mountain and working in Issaquah for another locally-based non-profit organization. She’s a VOICE mentor in the Issaquah School District and volunteers with other local organizations. She’s an avid reader and sourdough aficionado. She and her husband, Chris, love boating in South Puget Sound.  Madeline joined the FISH Board in 2019.

Robin Spicer

“Spicer,” a local and regional graphic designer with extensive marketing success, has lived, worked and volunteered in the Issaquah community since 1984. Her portfolio includes branding, packaging and promotions for real estate, tourism, sports, tech, finance, food/beverage and manufacturing companies, as well as small business, community non-profit organizations and festivals. (Spicer was the designer of the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival theme and logos from 1995 to 2019 and original FISH logo in 1992.)

With a continuous passion for design, community, salmon and the environment, Spicer relishes her free time swimming, reading, writing and celebrating all things – ideally along rivers, lakes, mountains or in our local haunts – with family, friends and partner Rob.

Chum

Chum

Chum, also known as “dog” salmon from the large canine teeth of spawning males, are the second largest Pacific salmon, weighing up to 40 pounds. Spawning males develop reddish vertical bars on their flanks; females have a reddish lateral band. Although chum are fast swimmers, they are not good jumpers, and they do not migrate far inland to spawn.

Chum fry migrate to the sea soon after they emerge from the gravel. They spend up to seven years at sea, but four years is typical.

Pink

Pink Salmon

Pink salmon rarely travel far upriver to spawn; they are typically found in shorter coastal streams. When the fry emerge from the gravel, they already have the silvery color of smolts, and they migrate directly to sea. Pinks spend a fixed 18 months at sea; thus, all returning pink salmon were born in the same year, and different year classes do not interbreed.

Pinks average 2 to 5 pounds. Sea run pinks are easily distinguished by the large oval spots on their backs and tail fins. Spawning males develop a large hump on their backs, earning the species its other name, “humpback.” Some biologists think the males’ conspicuous hump diverts the attention of predators away from the females.

Sockeye

Sockeye

Sea run sockeye have dark blue backs with few spots and bright silver sides. When they enter fresh water after a typical 2 years at sea, both males and females develop bright red bodies and green heads. The males’ bodies become laterally compressed, a hump grows behind the head, the jaws become hooked, and sharp canine teeth appear.

Sockeye fry, after emerging from the gravel, migrate to freshwater lakes, where they spend 1 to 2 years before heading out to sea. Some populations, called kokanee, spend their entire lives in freshwater lakes.

Coho

Coho Salmon

Coho (or silver) salmon are powerfully built, and they can jump falls that most salmon cannot negotiate. They have small black spots on their backs and the upper lobe of the tail fin. The gums at the base of the teeth are white. Although sea run coho have silver sides, spawning males develop bright red sides and greenish backs. Spawning females are paler. The jaws of spawning males often become grotesquely hooked.

Most coho spend 18 months at sea, staying in coastal waters, and they return to their home streams as 3 year olds weighing 8 to 10 pounds. The fry spend more than a year living in streams.

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