[Bleeeeep!]!
https://wdfw.wa.gov/newsroom/wdfw-statem...samish-hatchery

The way maintinance is done in the hatcheries is appalling. Aberdeen Lake Hatchery damn near hit the skids over the pipeline feed and it was not until a former legislator got involved it was resolved. Always remember failure to perform on objectives or responsibilities is an acceptable outcome for many WDFW staff.

With the rain coming down as hard as it was yesterday and last night, it seems it would just be common sense to check the screens and intakes often and not just wait for an alarm.

Sadly this one of 2 rivers that would be open up here at north sound. Even though 8,000 plus kings are returning to the Wallace river.

It’s one way to keep those evil hatchery fish outta the system...

Fish losses at hatcheries are a normal thing, like it or not. Systems sometimes fail. Then backup systems sometimes fail. And even backups to the backup can sometimes fail. Hatchery owners, including WDFW, employ many measures to reduce the frequency of fish losses, but as far as I know, no one have ever figured out how to eliminate losses entirely. It's a part of the fish rearing business, and it's among the reasons fish culturists never put "all their eggs in one basket." The risk is spread around: multiply incubators, multiple fry starting systems, multiple rearing ponds, and even multiple hatchery facilities. Fish losses cannot be prevented, but the frequency and severity of loss can be reduced. I'm pretty sure this is what WDFW does. Anyone who simply cannot tolerate loss of hatchery fish should not be in the hatchery business.

it's also one way to not spend the $$$ to feed them !!!

The loss at Samish Hatchery, although a setback, shouldn't require special restrictions, by itself, to local fisheries. Recent year returns came from a release goal of about 5.2M FCH smolts. Beginning w 2022 brood, the goal increased to 6.0M (presumably the ORCA prey increment?). In any case relative to recent year returns the difference is about 200K less smolts (6.0M minus 1.0M loss compared to 5.2M recent return release). Well within annual variation in survival/returns.

Addon to Salmo. There are 100's of hatcheries, rearing ponds, satelite facilities etc in the state. The Future Brood Doc outlining production at these sites is almost 1200 pages long. Many of the hatchery facilities are old, need upgrading, with old technologies. To think that there won't be an occasional hiccup somewhere due to mechanical failure, water supply issues is delusional.



https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02468

I agree with Salmo that fish always die in hatcheries. Sometime a lot, sometiimes a few. We need to know the difference between losses that are more or less acts of God, where the system gets overwhelmed and losses that are more or less intentional. There have been losses, rather large ones in fact, that were the result of simply not cleaning the incubation trays for weeks, not testing the emergency generator, and the like. These are reasonably preventable losses while stuff plugging in a downpour, breaking, and the like are not predictable.

As Darth noted, hatchery production in WA is massive with lots of sites and a massive amount of coordination necessary to bring it off.

Hatcheries take many forms and none are fail safe. Pumped stations are the most vulnerable due to power supply but gravity and ground water supply are vulnerable just in diverse ways. All have one thing in common things can fail from plugged screens, power outage, to failure to adjust to ground water supply. All have one commonality the final back up is human eyes that is why all facilities normally have a standby staff or someone on site such as a caretaker. Failure to do the normal fish health and facility maintenance cannot be excused under any circumstance. I know a gentleman who rears fish from spring fed water piped with the usual systems. A few years back he added a remote camera at the intake and outlet so if everything went south without warning due to a system failure he could check on things on his computer from his office or home (now his phone also) just to double check things for peace of mind.

When you run your loadings up (pounds of fish per gallon of flow and total pond volume) it is imperative that the facility be monitored 24-7 by staff. The loss of flow from plugged screens is always visible be it inlet or outlet. The failure that started this thread is NOT excusable in any way shape or form.

Keeping hatcheries going requires people to be actively involved 24/7. And that is expensive. In this day and age of cutting costs above all else I suspect we will see more losses.

CM having been away from rearing fish for some time I had to think back to the eggbox days and how things have changed. Technology has advanced so much that many aspects of labor-intensive things are not so now. Electronic egg pickers can pick bad eggs from a spawn in hours that used to take days. Many things like the advancement in mass marking, pathology, and rearing technics are amazing. The knowledge of what one should do or not do is huge to say the least. For myself the previously mentioned were an eye opener also the numbing realization that no hatcheries no harvest in rapid order.

So like it or not harvesters of salmon will be dependent upon protection of wild populations and hatchery production for harvest. Hatcheries need to be cost effect and well thought out. Now how to get WDFW to well thought out has and will continue to be a bit difficult shall we say. Cost effective? Remember the famous budget cuts a few years back? Well on the hatchery side it was more less fish food marking reducing production but not institutional changes and took the hatcheries to a horrible cost benefit ratio.

Failures like the subject of this thread are just so unacceptable and only give those apposed to hatcheries more ammo in budgets. This is about as acceptable as those who advocate planting fish everywhere which is as nuts as get rid of hatcheries is. Harvest will be dependent on hatcheries more in the future, not less. They need to be run effectively, genetically sensitive, environmentally correct, and be cost effective.

The screw up that is what this thread is about again is not acceptable. In the private sector if this had happened at a facility heads would roll. You do not lose such a massive percentage of your production and stay in business. From the head of hatcheries right down the line of administrative authority this is about process and quality control. For WDFW I fear it is business as usual.

In some ways, WDFW is acting like Boeing. Money is #1, not producing the product efficiently in an economic way.

Hell CM many years back Bingham hatchery had difficulty in getting egg picks done and as they were doing our incubation I was asked if I could help out. Harry was in the egg business then so I asked if he knew a solution. He loaned a electronic picker to them to use. That is back years technology has advanced and I am sure the new ones are better. Thing is when you look at the man hours needed to pick several million eggs and compare that to the cost and productivity of machines it does not take much math to see the savings. WDFD facilities are funded on the existing mechanisms and manning. Trying to get the simplest change done is a drawn out process complicated by budget and union man power in the contract. Think of it this way. Private rearing is like a tug boat nimble quick always ready in doing functions. WDFW is like a container ship takes 10 miles to stop and needs huge amout of ocean to simply turn. WDFW is centrally contolled and super rigid in process it produces what few others can but the weakness in the system is what this thread is about.

The Department doesn’t seem to do a good job offering volunteer opportunities at a lot of these hatcheries. I’ve seen a few posts for various facilities across the state over the years on social media, but if they’re short on budget/staffing, this would be an excellent opportunity.

With the increasing population and interest in fishing on diminishing returns, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lottery type system for Steelhead or Salmon in the future, similar to hunting. Volunteer hours in ways such as this or habitat work could be used to earn more “points” to improve odds of being drawn for these fisheries.

As a side note, I personally believe it should be a REQUIREMENT for guides or anyone making an income off of these fish’s backs to have a prescribed number of volunteer hours annually. Like that’d ever happen.

“Failures like the subject of this thread are just so unacceptable and only give those apposed to hatcheries more ammo in budgets.”

Cha-flipp’n-Ching!

Yes and i am sure that groups like the Snohomish sportsman club, wildcat Steelhead ciub, etc. would love to help out. But that would mean giving some control to the public and heaven forbid that state give any control to everyday citizens.

I think, based on what I have with at least some volunteering, is that there is an expectation that the work will result in opportunity down the road. So, WDFW won't (I believe) accept help, or even money, when the Tribes would be opposed or they would have to work with NOAA to modify fisheries.

Having worked as a volunteer for many years this, volunteers are hit and miss. 10 say they will show up, seven show up and maybe 4 can do the work. Some do work out such as Bingham where students have helped surplus for many years. Springs volunteers another example.

For whatever the reason the late 80s and 90s where WDFW really worked with volunteers but the agency the has reversed direction. Now even back then the volunteers had good volunteer coordinators but the harvest managers did about everything under the moon to make volunteers life difficult. The strong relationships were with the hatchery division and varied greatly by region / watersheds.

There used to be really strong volunteer coordination along with outreach and education. At least when I was there, that became "too expensive". That is, the staff component. I think you're right that hatcheries were where folks could be most used. They needed help and have lots to do.

As you noted, Rivrguy, if hatcheries get more automated you need less humans. At least on paper.