What’s happening at the Hatchery: Fin Clipping

Working to better understand and protect salmon with fin clipping:
This year, the hatchery is hosting two marking trailers, one manual and one automated. The manual unit is processing approximately 35,000 salmon fingerlings per day, while the automated unit can process 140,000 per day! 

About fin clipping… Clipping is a common practice conducted at most Washington salmon hatcheries to aid in fish identification. The adipose fin (between the dorsal and tail fins) is harmlessly removed. When the salmon return, they can be recognized as hatchery or wild origin, allowing us a better understanding of salmon populations over the years. It also helps us preserve wild salmon, as sport fishers are only allowed to take hatchery-origin fish.