Fish collector could boost Baker Lake summer sockeye numbers

Puget Sound Energy work crews launched a second 1,100-ton barge fish collector this spring, which could result in dramatically larger numbers of summer sockeye.
http://seattletimes.com/html/othersports/2020924158_outn05.html

Hope it works. Those fish are awesome!

Too bad there is no fishery for them in the Skagit this year like last year.

Waterboy,

The expected run size is lower this year than last, so managers are being more cautious. Once the fish have been counted through the Baker trap, they'll know how many are available for harvest. There should be enough for a decent lake fishery.

Sg

The Indians wll get the bulk of the run this yr and every year. The lake fishery is the last and lowest priority.

Slab,

Not quite true. The lake fishery is a higher priority than the river recreational fishery because censusing the fish through the trap facilitates more precise management. When the forecast is for a large run, you'll see river recreational seasons scheduled. The treaty fishery is second only to conservation as a matter of case law, but pretty much everyone here already knew that. Tribal management could avail itself of the precision that the trap offers, but they don't favor that approach.

Sg

So why 48,000 fish last year and only 21,000 this year? With all the new hardware and spawning beaches shouldn't the numbers be more consistent from year to year? I know ocean conditions play into it but it seems other runs of salmon have been pretty consistent over the past 2 to 3 years.

Waterboy,

This year's adult return is from a smolt population half as large as last year's. At the same smolt to adult survival rate, around half as many returning adults are expected.

It's funny to read a comment about "only 21,000" Baker sockeye. A few short years ago that number was something we dreamed about. Now you call it "only." Kinda' funny in context.

Adult returns will be larger than in the past due to the juvenile fishways and the new hatchery, but they won't likely be consistent from year to year. Freshwater productivity in Baker Lake, and now Lake Shannon as well, will vary from year to year. And ocean marine survival is likely to vary between 2% to 12% based on observations of previous brood years. In general, we likely will have a sockeye fishery most every year for the foreseeable future.

Sg

I seem to remember when 2,000 would have been a "great abundance". Some runs, duing the careers of folks on this Board, were under 1,000; if memory serves.

Kinda like Puyallup or Green River pinks. Wasn't too long ago when 20K in Puyallup would have been great and any in the Green a miracle.

Shifting baselines are such a wonderful thing.

21k is still a great number! My son loves baker lake and talks about it all year. Last year we took home 35 nice fish for 4 of us for 7 total days of fishing

Why would they open a fishery on Baker lake for 20,000 fish when it takes 350,000 to open Lake Washington?

Two totally different systems! 5 years ago 2k-3k fish to baker was a good run! The state and parks makes a lot of $$ from people fishing and camping at Baker. It also can be tough fishing if u dont have the right set ups. Its a really fun lake to fish and camp at and not a super long drive. My son and I look forward to it every year. You just have to sometimes make rigs up on the spot and tinker with leader length and bait and it can just be a huge blast

Seems some complain about numbers without any true historical knowledge of those numbers

Salman,

Baker sockeye are sustained primarily by spawning beaches and hatchery culture, with a small contribution from natural reproduction. So a smaller spawning escapement (around 5 to 6k IIRC) is needed to maintain the artificial production. Lake Washington is maintained primarily through natural production, even with the new hatchery. In addition, the LW sockeye escapement goal has no demonstrable relationship with basin productivity. Therefore there is no reason to expect any logical relationship between the separate Baker and LW escapement goals.

Sg

This was a run that was down to 99 fish in 1985! Last decade average a little over 7,000. What a remarkable turnaround! Every year since 2010 has been five-figures. Hat's off to everyone involved in this project. I know some of these guys that work at the PSE Baker Project. Some dedicated folks there.

Salmo-

You are privy to the outmigration numbers. Pretty good week last week I understand. Want to share?

The LW escapement number seems to me to be the definition of stupidity.

This is a non-native run, right? Supported by a hatchery.

So once egg-take is met at the hatchery, the fishery should open, right? I try to be an open minded guy on these things, but this one confuses the daylights out of me.

They are sockeye native to Baker Lake. They use spawning beaches and artificial incubation. Salmo probably has better details, but they try to distribute the run at the spawning beaches and hatchery to mimic natural run timing. This probably results in more fish not "taken", but I think the surplus is either harvested or put in the lake. So basically, the egg take, or distribution of adults to the spawning beaches can't be met until the end of the human made run timing bell curve.

No eyes,

I was there with the 99 sockeye in 1985. Talk about a grim outlook, but some stories have good endings.

About 194,000 sockeye smolts out of Baker Lake so far, and over 90,000 from the new Lower Baker collector in Lake Shannon. I don't think they are quite to the half way point in the out-migration yet. Indeed, it's looking to be a good season for smolt production.

IR,

The LW escapement goal is not the definition of stupidity. But it probably satisfies the definition of the least risky decision. Change from the status quo entails risk. Even though the status quo entails risk. Aha! But the status quo is risk already accepted. People are funny. Makes me wish I'd studied psychology and sociology more.

Sg

I was not complaining about only 21,000 sockeye. My question was if the spawning beaches and incubators have been there why was outgoing smolt production for this run half as much as last year? Shouldn't it be pretty consistent from year to year?

Also, what exactly are the artificial spawning beaches? Just an area they hauled a bunch of gravel into?