News specific to FISH, including volunteer work, events, achievements, announcements, etc..
Thank you to all of our wonderful docent volunteers who helped make our small group tours possible this season! To those of you who joined us, we were delighted to be able to share the salmon season with you, and we look forward to seeing many more of you next year! Here’s to a good new year full of cool, flowing water, eggs, alevins, frys, fingerlings, smolts and returning adults! Keep ’em coming home!
Your Friends at FISH
One of the miraculous facets of a Pacific salmon’s life is its death. All Pacific salmon die after they spawn. In doing so, they enrich their home stream with their harvest of years of nutrition on the high seas. This chinook will feed the local ecosystem, and perhaps even its progeny when they emerge from the gravel in 4 months time.
Betcha Didn’t Know This:
The sharp-eyed among you may note that this chinook’s tail has been cut off. This indicates that a Fisheries Biologist has sampled, measured and counted this fish. Severing the tail ensures that this fish is not counted more than once.
Did you know that ducks are not vegetarians? This photo of mallards feasting on a dead salmon was also taken today on Issaquah Creek.
Annual Report:
We’ve had an incredible year and are so thankful for all of the wonderful volunteers who made it possible. Check out these 2019 statistics:
Individuals reached by FISH volunteers and staff:
Farewell, Pepper!
It is said that all good things must come to an end. Such is our time with Kris “Pepper” Hambrick, our Program Coordinator, who has developed curriculum and taught classes and summer camp for the past three seasons. She is moving on to her next adventure. From the beginning, Pepper brought a spark of enthusiasm and energy. She taught us about questioning, learning and presenting styles – how to look through different lenses. Not from the “fishy” world, Pepper has brought her intelligence and inquisitive nature to the Issaquah Hatchery. In good weather, we would find her enjoying lunch outside by the stream, doing hatchery historical research, reading the latest salmon book or article and, in turn, sharing the new information with us. She integrated that breadth of knowledge, and excitement, into her classroom visits and presentations. She will be missed! We will be following her as she boldly goes where no one has gone before. Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning!
Best of luck Pepper!
Your FISH friends
Thank you to everyone who supported FISH during the incredible 50th Salmon Days Festival! Here are some numbers to celebrate:
Today members of third and fourth grade classes from Issaquah Valley, Blackwell, and Arrowhead elementary schools joined us at Confluence Park for a day of education, restoration, and fun! Under the auspices of the Kokanee Work Group, participants included FISH, the Snoqualmie Cultural Department, Mountains to Sound Greenway, Trout Unlimited, Triangle Associates, City of Sammamish, City of Issaquah, Mid-sound Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife, Gibson Ek High School, and concerned citizens. Students learned about invasive weed removal, mulching, salmon anatomy, river dynamics, traditional rope and net-making, water quality stewardship, and how to toss kokanee into culverts. We were also honored to share songs with the drummers from the Snoqualmie Tribe and Chief Andy. Thanks to everyone who made this day a success students will remember for a long time!
Sometimes it may feel like we’re toiling in obscurity over here at the hatchery, but this year brings a reminder that per City of Issaquah Resolution 93-15, the Issaquah Creek/Salmon Run and the Salmon Hatchery are numbers 1 and 2 on the list of treasures that make up part of the city’s work plan for 2019. These treasures were determined by a year-long, open community process that solicited input on those features of the community that make it special and unique. This will bring renewed attention to the hatchery and its operations from both officials and the public, a well-deserved recognition for all the work we do and a reminder that these treasures are important not only to us, but the community at large.
David St. John of the Kokanee Work Group shared an update about Remote Site Incubators:
“I am happy to share that we now have eggs in the gravel in the egg boxes on Zackuse Creek and Idylwood Creek! These RSIs are a key element of our recovery strategy, as we look to recolonize streams and improve the survival rates of offspring from fish coming through our supplementation program. Through WDFW’s genetics lab in Olympia, we have concluded (just in time) with high confidence that the eggs in the RSIs (and the supplementation program as whole) 1) are the progeny of native Lake Sammamish kokanee and 2) are not the result of sibling matings, which is a bit of good news. We expect this first batch of eggs to hatch in the next week or so.”
In 2018, Washington State appointed Kelly Susewind as the new Director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and one of the first things he did was to call a series of public meetings to discuss the many issues in front of the Department. One of those public meetings was to be held at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, and FISH immediately contacted his office to see if he would attend a private meeting with FISH on the same day. We met with Director Susewind (he prefers ‘Kelly’) and two of his staff in December. Darin Combs, Issaquah Hatchery manager, joined Robin Kelley, Kelly Richardson (so many Kellys!) and Larry Franks in this mutual sharing of plans and priorities. FISH shared the desire to identify and execute plans that could make a significant contribution to the return of adult salmon to our hatchery, which should certainly benefit fishers of all sorts, from orcas, to commercial harvest, to sport fishers and the Muckleshoot Tribe.
FISH identified a particular problem experienced by our fish in their trek to the sea: only 8 to 11 percent of the smolt we release survive to make it to Shilshole Bay. The Department was familiar with this high risk, and we asked them to consider measures to mitigate the predation on our smolt in Lake Sammamish. Any action to this effect would also benefit the numerous kokanee restoration efforts, as well. We had one follow-up meeting in January, and more are scheduled later in the month. The Department has been very receptive to the ideas that FISH is bringing forth, but is always looking for more data, especially to establish that Lake Sammamish predation reduction is the best path forward at this time. The Department links the probable success of this venture to the passage of Governor Inslee’s budget proposal to fund the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force recommendations.
Theodore Koshar’s Eagle Scout project beautified the hatchery grounds with personalized bricks. Over the winter months, installation had stalled, but we are happy to report that the next batch are on their way as we speak. Weather and bricklayer schedule permitting, they will be installed in the next month, and we will keep you posted.
Thank you so much for your support, and look for your bricks to be laid this spring!
Life Scout Theodore Koshar is supporting FISH and earning his Eagle Scout designation by selling and installing custom paving bricks at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.
The proceeds will be used to support FISH’s salmon education and community outreach efforts. Each brick will be planted as part of Theodore’s Eagle Scout project later this year on the hatchery grounds. Order your brick today: recognize someone you love, a special occasion, celebrate your business, or simply reaffirm your commitment to our returning salmon.
http://www.bricksrus.com/order/fish/
The Chinook count is up to 4,827! And, the recent rain has brought the first of them into Issaquah Creek. And, we have jumpers! Few Chinook are being reported at the Shilshole Public Ramp, but the Coho count is picking up! Pretty soon the official count will start tracking the Coho return – presently they have counted about 500 Coho at this time. That forecast is for over 22,000 fish, so we should have lots of Coho action at the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.
Can you spot whether these fish are hatchery-reared or naturally spawned?
Our favorite salmonids are on their way back! The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) forecast (including the Issaquah Hatchery runs) expects “similar [to last year] Chinook fisheries” and “. . . a strong run of Coho salmon.” All our returning fish pass through the Chittenden (Ballard) Locks where they are counted as they make their way into the Lake Washington basin. Many of the Chinook and Coho are on their way to Issaquah Creek – most of the Sockeye are on their way to the Cedar River. The current count is pictured below:
The Chinook count has taken a nice bump up to 1,697. This is still short of the historic numbers at this time, but not scary. Yet. The Issaquah Salmon Hatchery only needs about 800 pair of Chinook to hit our typical egg allotment. More sport-caught Chinook have been reported at the Shilshole Public Ramp, which is right at the entrance to the Locks. The Neah Bay Chinook fishery has peaked and is dropping; one of the routes our fish take to get to the Puget Sound from the Pacific Ocean.
With these sparse numbers it is unlikely that fishing for the Chinook would be open in the Sammamish River or Lake Sammamish. The official word is on the WDFW site current regulations and Special Rules, which can change from day to day.
The sport catch out of Westport is still excellent. Now most of those fish are headed for the Columbia and other watersheds, but we can hope, can’t we, that some of these fish will continue up the coast to head to Issaquah.
The coho count has not started yet – the forecast is for over 22,000 fish, so that is very heartening!
