Waterboy,

The vast majority of the sockeye fry are put directly into Baker Lake and migrate out a year later. Definitely not a controled environment like a hatchery. Some won't survive (what carcassman said), some will get eaten, some will residualize, some won't find the collector, some will die in the transfer.

The spawning beaches are gravel filled pools with upwelling water below the gravel. They have four of them. Fry emerging from the gravel migrate out a channel and are collected and trucked to the lake.

PSE put some pretty good videos out on how it all operates.

Upstream trapping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs9-u5puIf4

Downstream trapping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SqHr7uUKkU&list=PLKBwvqFi6HOh-BHJ3Js-AQnnczWJYorZY&index=5

Cool stuff.