NEWS – Lake Washington Sockeye

For those following the progress of a new permanent sockeye hatchery on the Cedar River, I just got word of a set-back for the project. Construction of the state of the art hatchery capable of producing 34 million fry was on track to begin next spring, however, an appeal was filed against the Final EIS last week. Interesting enough, Washington Trout and every other group that have been critical of hatcheries as of late chose not to appeal the EIS. Instead, an individual by the name of Roz Glasser, who formerly worked at King County as a watershed planner has filed the only appeal . I have not read the appeal yet, but as with any appeal it could take quite a while to resolve. I will see if I can get a copy of the appeal to post on the board.

That figure's

Just curious...
who out there on this board supports the Cedar River Sockeye Hatchery project going forward?

Here's a link I found for the project web page:

http://www.cityofseattle.net/util/CedarRiverHCP/hatchery/default.htm

I do . fishing thru managment of renewable resources , grow more. <img border="0" alt="[Goldfish]" title="" src="graemlins/goldfish.gif" />

I don't think we will ever be able to restore sockeye runs in lake washington through natural spawning, there are just to many habitat problems from all the development in the watershed. Hatcheries are the only way we will have sockeye in decent numbers in the lake washington system.

What do you mean "restore"?
These sockeye are introduced fish, this is not a native run.

Lake washington sockeye are the same as lake washington smallmouth bass. . . They don't really belong.

But since they're there I'll fish for them. Anybody worried about the sockeye hatchery's from a hurting the native wild fish standpoint should be worried about the wild lake washington coho or cutthroat.

Whether or not you support the project really doesn't matter. Either way, you will pay for it.

I support the new hatchery. Most spawning creeks around Lake Washington are not sutible for mass spawning. When were the sockeye introduced into the water shed? If they were introduced, then why are they also traveling throuigh the Smamish Slough to Lake Smamish and spawning in creeks there? Also does anyone know were the few sockeye in the Skykomish came from? If you look at the hatchery report on www.nwfishing.com they post the number of fish the hatcheries get. They also post how many fish are caught in traps at Sunset Falls on the Sky, these fish are shipped over the falls to the rest of the river. I saw 15 sockeye, mabey more I can't remember, on that list. Where did they come from?

Jay

Sockeye do inhabit Puget Sound streams. Both the Stilly and Snohomish systems have them. My theory is that numerous watersheds formerly hosted annual runs of sockeye. What we see today in WA are remnants that have escaped the horrific commerical fishery of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Although I don't have scientific evidence to back it up, I have arrived at this conclusion as a result of personal observation as well as acquired knowledge about historic runs.
I would have to wonder what the impact of the new proposed Cedar River hatchery will have on available cutthroat spawning habitat. Should be quite a show if an increased return happens.... maybe the Cedar river will run red and we can walk on the backs of sockeye :p

I received extra credit at school last year for helping with the salmon watchers on lake washington. One of the most interesting things i found was that some salmon will spawn on the beach below I-90. Theirs a park there and a kayak rental shop in the summer. in october to december I checked this beach every other day. in october while it was raining the salmon spawned on the beach. They think this is becouse they have a hard time going up coal creek. the mouth of coal creek is to shallow at that time of year. http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/salmon/
heres the link if you are interested.