Published 11/23/2007

Tribal hatchery work impacts future of salmon

by Beckye Randall

One hundred years ago members of the Tulalip Tribes paddled canoes up to the Skykomish Fish Hatchery on the Wallace River, bringing wild salmon eggs to the hatchery for fertilization, rearing and release into the Skykomish River.

Earlier this month the trip was repeated, this time in trucks and vans, but the scenario was reversed. Wild salmon eggs and sperm were harvested from the Wallace River facility, then transported back to Tulalip for fertilization and incubation.

With increased urban and industrial growth and the oceanic effects of global warming, salmon in Puget Sound are facing vanishing habitats, poor water quality, a lack of nutrients, and more warm water predators.

“There’s mounting pressure on hatcheries to create fish that are as close as possible to their better-surviving wild counterparts,” said Mike Crewson, Tulalip Tribes Fisheries Enhancement Biologist. “Hatchery efforts now focus on mimicking conditions in the natural environment and infusing the genetics of wild fish to increase the survival of hatchery fish after they are released.”

The Tulalip Tribes is one of twenty northwest tribes with fisheries programs. According to Craig Olson, a fish pathologist with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC), the local program is the “most sophisticated” hatchery among the Native American groups, primarily because its design is flexible enough to manage multiple species of salmon in their overlapping spawning seasons.

The process of harvesting, fertilizing and incubating the salmon eggs requires precise timing and delicate handling.

At the Wallace River hatchery, 450 wild coho salmon were sacrificed in the harvest. The tribal team worked quickly to fill sixteen 30-pound buckets with the bright red eggs from 300 females. Milt, or sperm, was milked from 150 males, filling small bags that were flash-frozen and placed in ice.

After careful transport to the Tulalip hatchery, where the precious buckets were weighed and cataloged, the choreographed process of fertilization began.

Once the milt is mixed with the water surrounding the eggs, fertilization happens instantly and the eggs begin to quickly expand. Timing is critical, and George Jones kept a watchful eye on the clock to make sure the eggs were removed from the soupy water at exactly the right moment.

After being scooped into measuring containers, the eggs were given a quick bath in an iodine solution by Jesse Rude. The iodine kills bacteria, viruses and parasites, according to Olson, but the dip can also damage the eggs if they are not handled with extreme care.

The incubation trays holding the fertilized and disinfected eggs were then passed quickly to Bill Fryberg, who loaded them into the waiting incubators.

Within about an hour, more than 900,000 wild coho salmon eggs had been fertilized. Hatchery officials estimate the incubated eggs will produce about 640,000 young salmon for release with roughly 38,500 adult fish surviving to return to Tulalip Bay in three to five years.

Crewson explained, “In the wild, 90 percent of eggs die immediately. In hatchery conditions, approximately 75 percent will survive.”

Left alone in the enclosed incubator trays, the coho eggs will hatch in five to six weeks. After another five or six weeks, the tiny fish will “button up” as their bodies close up around the egg sack and absorb it for its nutrients.

The fingerlings are transferred to an early rearing trough for a few weeks before being released into raceways, a set of concrete “streams” filled with fresh water. Coho are kept in fresh water for approximately 18 months before being moved to a natural pond at the edge of Tulalip Bay. After becoming acclimated to the saltwater of the bay, in about two to three weeks, the juvenile salmon are released into the wild.

Three species of salmon are reared at the Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery at Tulalip. In addition to the coho salmon, 2.4 million chinook and 8 million chum fingerlings will be incubated at the hatchery.

With the hatchery’s planned release of approximately 11 million salmon this year, 117,000 adult fish are expected to return to north Puget Sound over three to five years. The estimated market value of these fish to tribal, sport and commercial fisheries is about $1.5 million.

The financial impact is impressive, but to Tulalip tribal members salmon are more than dollar signs. Natural salmon runs, and the ecosystem of which they are a part, provide a deep, resonating value and purpose for Northwest tribes.

As historian Jennifer Ott writes in her essay “Salmon Stories of Puget Sound Lushootseed-Speaking People:”

The Lushootseed origin story, "Moon, the Transformer," emphasizes the fact that salmon were given to the people by Moon for their subsistence. As Moon traveled around Puget Sound, he came across all the animal species and all of the elements of the earth and transformed them into what they are today. His first transformation changed dog salmon into "food for the people." At the end of the transformation, Moon tells the people, "Fish shall run up these rivers, they shall belong to each people on its own river. You shall make your own living from the fish, deer and other wild game."

In 1974, the Tulalip Tribes reinstated the traditional First Salmon Ceremony, a gathering held in June to welcome salmon back to local waters. The King Salmon is honored for his sacrifice to the tribe and his spirit is returned to the water to ensure a bountiful harvest.

With a degrading habitat and a changing global climate, the survival of the northwest fish population requires more than ancient rituals. Cutting edge genetic technology and scientific know-how is combined at the Tulalip Tribes’ Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery to help ensure the return of King Salmon.

 

Caption: (Top) Tulalip tribal member Bill Fryberg secures trays filled with fertilized coho salmon eggs into banks of incubators at the Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery.

(Middle) An adult coho is placed into a humane percussive stunner by Mark King prior to egg removal at the Wallace Hatchery.

(Bottom) Fertilized eggs are poured into incubator trays while floating in a germ-killing iodine mixture by Jesse Rude.

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