I was recently told this hatchery exists only to raise chum eggs to sell. I can't imagine that is so but wanted to check here to see if any of you know what this hatchery is all about?

The Chum programs in PS had thier beginning when Harry Senn headed up hatcheries. The was space and a time slot available at low cost so at the request of the harvest managers off they went. As in all hatchery fish that are mixed stock you can't get them all and it just happens in recent years the value of Chum eggs for caviar has went right up. The egg sales are part of the total E&C contract which the same company has had for many years. Monies generated are high but they also defer the cost where the carcass value is low in the total agency contract. Andy does rather well with the contract I might add.

Since straying is a normal occurance in salmon I always wondered what % of wild end back up at the hatcherys..Anyone know?

There has also been talk about private groups taking over operation of the McKernan state hatchery on the Skok.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/dec/25/state-considering-turning-over-hatchery-to/

Dave,

George Adams raises chinook, coho, and chum salmon. Chinook production is currently 3.8 million chinook fingerlings per year. I don't have coho and chum numbers handy, but it's pretty clear that the purpose of the hatchery extends far beyond raising chum for the roe market. There may be some confusion regarding the McKernan hatchery that is also in the Skokomish basin and either closed or slated to be closed. McKernan springs raises chum salmon, not for roe, but to support commercial fisheries for whatever product they sell, be it the entire carcass or the roe. McKernan may be available for sale to a private entity, but last I heard, no one is stepping forward.

Sg

SBD, I don't know about wilds getting mixed with the hatchery take, but the Nat'l fish manager at Quilcene Hatchery told me that over 40% of the spawning fish upriver of the hatchery ARE hatchery fish. At that rate, it only takes a few cycles to have the harchery dna contaminate into what they call "wild" fish.

BONK 'EM!

Dave, no George Adams doesn't exist solely for chum salmon, although at one time, that was the plan for the entire Canal. GA has a large Chinook program (~3.8M release), a small (~300K) but very productive coho program and does release ~8M chum. Sorry, I didn't see Salmo's post while I was working on mine.

I was beat up gently a few years ago around this. The hatchery DNA contaminates "Native" fish. Wild fish are whatever lives and breeds in the rivers outside of hatcheries. We won't all agree on this, but I think we agree there are differences between native, original, stocks and what we now have as wild.

Hood Canal hatchery chum are genetically predominately HC chum. I don't think enough outside chum were ever introduced to cause any genetic shift in the chum population. Hatchery coho are a combination of local HC stock, plus other Puget Sound stocks imported from time to time, mainly Green River. There may be endemic historic HC genetic material in the coho population, especially fish that have markedly different run timing than the main hatchery population.

Except for the Dungeness spring chinook, the rest of the HC chinook population is genetically linked to outside hatchery chinook populations. Quilcene obtained spring chinook broodstock from numerous sources to augment the native stock, diluting if not eliminating the native stock. Green River fall chinook are the most abundant and common chinook in HC, both in hatcheries and spawning naturally. Native Skokomish spring and fall chinook were extirpated decades ago.

Hood Canal is a textbook case for how to destroy wild salmon populations with hatcheries and hatchery harvest rates on wild stocks.

Sg