salmon egg mortality study
Scott Amerman Amerman salmon eggs


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A while back some people asked about the egg cure study being done by the ODFW that was testing the effects of cured eggs on smolts. I (and many other egg cure companies) have been working closely with the ODFW on these studies to see the possible effects on smolts. I figured I would give everyone a little update as to where we are now and what is going on. The preliminary studies have been done, and what we have found is that eggs cured with high levels of sodium sulfite have caused deaths to smolts in a hatcheryenvironment. The tests have shown that hatchery raised smolts whose diet is changed to 100% cured eggs (egg cures high in sodium sulfite) have shown mortalityin some smolts in a small hatchery basin test. As of so far we have no idea how this translates to the real world and if smolts in the wild suffer these same effects. It is very unlikely that any fish in the wild will ever be forced to eat 100% eggs only.

What we have found so far is that some smolts died, usually in the 1st ten days; some in the first 4-8 hours of their diet being changed. In every test that has been done, the majority of the smolts did not die even after being feed this 100% diet for 23 days. Even on the tests where mortality occurred, there was very little, if any, mortality to the smolts in days 10-23. It is my understanding that eggs cured in lower levels of sodium sulfite and eggs cured in borax, etc. had no mortality on smolts. I believe in fact, that in all tests done on eggs cured with a cure containing less than 25% sodium sulfite, there was no mortality over the full 23 days. So far no other chemicals have been shown to cause deaths in smolts, but testing to this point has been fairly limited as to the vast majority of possible cure ingredients.
It is my hope that:
1. We can continue to study the effect of cured eggs on smolts and see if these preliminary results translate over to the wild.
2. If we find that this translates over to the real world, it is my hope we can measurewhat kind of impact sodium sulfite cured eggs have on our smolt populations.
3. If we find a real world problem with these cures, we can alter the use of or remove altogether those chemicals that lead to mortality
4. We can broaden our test to see if other chemicals will lead to mortality too, so as to not replace one deadly chemical with another equally or more deadly chemical.

Be aware that there will be groups out there that will want to take these preliminary test results to push for total bait bans or to prove a great impact by the sports fisherman rather than waiting for continued testing to see if these results translate over to the wild which right now no one knows. For now what we as fisherman can do is avoid throwing your fished out baits back in the water after you change it. Small salmon and steelhead are much more likely to eat the small discarded bait chunks than the larger bait chunks many people fish. Discarding any used cured eggs in a safe manor instead of back into the water until more testing is done will be a safer alternative either way for now.
Also, if anyone out there has seen dead smolts in the wild, we would love the hear about it. We do some egg fisheries where smolts steal our baits, (in tidewater, around the hatcheries and boat ramps) and if a significant number of smolts died in these fisheries, it is my belief that we should be seeing lots of dead smolts in the rivers, hundreds, maybe even thousands of dead smolts following hatchery releases etc.

Please know that if something in our products is significantly impacting juvenile salmon in the wild, then we the cure companies will whole heartedly take on the responsibility to change these ingredients, the way they are used and hopefully regulated.



Scott Amerman Amerman salmon eggs
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