Hatchery, Featured
Hatchery, Featured
Hatchery, Featured
The Salmon Have Returned
Our Pink and Chum salmon, which we raised and cared for at the hatchery several years ago, have found their way back home. Once our hatchery salmon reach the smolt stage of their lifecycle (transition from fresh to salt water), we release them into the wild to live out their adult lives. While swimming in the Pacific, they have been chased by predators and chased other organisms as predators themselves, all the while gaining mass and stamina. After three to five years of living their wild lives, the salmon’s natural instinct takes hold and they start to find their way back to the waters from which they came.
You might think it difficult for salmon to find the same stream they were hatched in as freshwater streams enter the ocean all along Alaska’s coastlines, but each is unique in smell. Salmon have a remarkable ability to ‘smell’ the water, and scientists believe it is this sense that leads them to their home streams. For our hatchery, we see them coming as early as mid-July with their fins cutting through the ocean waves and masses of fish crowding into the shallows. Since there is no stream for them to travel here, the hatchery drops the barrier net, keeping the returning salmon at bay. This gives us time to work with our partners and conduct cost-recovery fishing.
With our special use permit granted through Alaska Department of Fish and Game we are able to collect large numbers of returning salmon and sell them to seafood markets, splitting the profits with our partners. Each year we partner with a local fish processor, Silver Bay Seafoods, who hires a seiner to net up our returning salmon. The f/v Lucy O has helped with this process for the last few years and has become a welcome sight come early August. The Science Center’s portion of the revenue from this fishing goes right back into our hatchery to ensure our safe and sustainable operations next year.
Sitka Sound Science Center is the only teaching hatchery in Alaska and was the first salmon hatchery permitted by the State. As such, we are always looking for new innovative ways to support the next generation of fish and hatchery workers. Please consider learning more about what we do and supporting our work.
