Down year for Lake Washington sockeye, but the future looks bright
The final count of sockeye hit 64,670 on Sept. 7, and will go down as the fourth lowest return since 2006.

By Mark Yuasa
Seattle Times staff reporter

There were high hopes for Lake Washington sockeye this summer, but the return hit a stumbling block and never lived up to expectations.
State and tribal fisheries managers had forecast a return of 166,997 sockeye, but as the daily in-season counts started in late June it appeared the run was headed into the abyss.
“There was no question the sockeye run was depressed this summer, (and) early on it looked like it was going to be one of the worst seen since counts began at the Ballard Locks in 1972,” said Frank Urabeck, a sport-fishing representative on the Cedar River Adaptive Management Work Group.
“Even though the number of sockeye passing the locks got better, the actual 2014 return was only 39 percent of the preseason forecast,” Urabeck said.
The final count of sockeye hit 64,670 on Sept. 7, and will go down as the fourth lowest return since 2006.
Despite the lower-than-expected numbers, sockeye are now reaching the Cedar River fish trap located just above the I-405 Bridge next to Renton Community Center. The trap was installed Sept. 3 by Seattle Public Utilities and state Fish and Wildlife.
This is a great place for the public to get an up-close view of the sockeye migration from the pedestrian bridge located beneath the I-405 Bridge. Another good fish-viewing location is just off Landsburg Road S.E. on the Cedar River Trail.
Urabeck stopped by the fish trap Sept. 7, and saw about 50 adult sockeye swimming around the base of the trap with some pushing nine pounds. Fish trapping will continue into early November before seasonal rain storms raise river levels too high for safe operation.
“We need as many sockeye as possible reaching the Cedar for natural spawning, and broodstock for the permanent sockeye hatchery that began operating at Landsburg in 2011,” Urabeck said. “One of our biggest concerns with natural spawning fish are high rivers flows and flooding from October through March, which can scour the spawning beds.”
“There is just a whole bunch of elements working against the fish, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Mother Nature dishes out this winter and keep our fingers crossed,” he said.
Another important aspect is sockeye production at the hatchery facility, which has the capacity to produce up to 34 million eggs.
Seattle Public Utilities, the operators of the hatchery, has yet to achieve the 34 million, and the best was about 18 million in 2013 of which only about 12 million made it into Lake Washington.
In 2012, about 22 million sockeye fry left the Cedar and six million originated from the hatchery. If those fish survived well in the lake and ocean, then the possibility of a fishery in 2015 will go up.
Looking further ahead, Urabeck says he is more optimistic about a fishery occurring in 2016.
In 2013, the Cedar had a whopping production of 68 million sockeye fry from a good combination of hatchery and wild outmigration that went into the lake, and survivors would be the fish coming back as adults in 2016.
“It was just a phenomenal figure,” Urabeck said. “The high before that was like about 55 million. Everything went right (ideal water flows during the autumn and winter in 2013 lead to minimal scouring), and we had a great hatchery contribution and got the maximum from wild fish production.”
One of the final pieces in making a fishery possible in the lake is lowering the spawning escapement .... http://seattletimes.com/html/othersports/2024584321_outnotes21xml.html