http://www.thenewstribune.com/adventure/story/5303337p-4808472c.html System spawns success
Teamwork brings more salmon to watershed
JEFFREY P. MAYOR; The News Tribune
Published: November 3rd, 2005 03:00 AM
The coho salmon slowly finned in the cold water of Deer Creek, upstream from where it joins the Puyallup River.
It was a big fish, about 12 pounds. It had obviously tangled with an angler not too long ago; a piece of red yarn was tied to a hook stuck in one of its lower fins. Apparently the fish had won that battle.
Now the salmon, already in its darkened spawning colors, was checking out its new home. The sunlight streamed through the branches of alder trees that line the banks. Plenty of cold water tumbled over the large rocks that filled the streambed. It was an idyllic setting for a salmon with romance on its mind.
That’s the exact idea of this nine-year joint effort to put coho and chinook salmon into the upper reaches of the Puyallup River watershed. It is a project run by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, with some help from the state, to get more salmon to spawn in areas accessible to fish following construction of a fish ladder at the Electron Dam in 2000.
The ladder has opened 30 miles of stream habitat for salmon spawning. It’s just one step being taken to increase the number of salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act.
“We’re trying to get fish into areas where there’s not enough fish to sustain the population,” said Russ Ladley, resource protection manager for the Puyallup Tribe.
“The whole idea is to jump-start the runs in these waters above the dam,” he added.
BOUND FOR A BETTER HOME
Each fall, coho and chinook begin filling a small pond at the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Voights Creek hatchery just
outside Orting, where they were spawned. When the number of fish returning exceeds the numbers the hatchery needs for its spawning program, the hatchery workers give their Puyallup counterparts a call.
Once a week, state and tribal crew members don their waders and begin the process of getting fish from the hatchery to locations above the fish ladder.
On this day, under the watchful gaze of a group of curious 4-H students, a group of biologists stepped into the pond. The biologists dragged a large net to corral some of the salmon, then scooped them up with hand nets to place them in tank trucks. For this group of 500 fish, it would be a 40-minute drive to a bridge that crosses Deer Creek where it flows through Rainier Timber Company property in the shadow of Mount Rainier.
Once at the stream, a large plastic tube was connected to each tank, and the salmon took a wild 20-foot ride down to the creek. Some of the fish seemed dazed by the ordeal, but the majority quickly got their bearings and began exploring what will be their home for the final weeks of their lives.
“Within seven or eight days, they’ll start spawning,” said Blake Smith, enhancement manager for the Puyallup Tribe. “It’s amazing; they seem to know where to go even through they’ve never been here before.”
In Deer Creek, the fish have access to about 11/2 miles of spawning habitat.
Smith said some fish will even move downstream into the main stem of the Puyallup River in search of a place to spawn.
“There’s some better gravel down there and in some of the smaller tributaries,” Smith said.
EFFORT PAYS OFF
Ladley said the program is working, despite some obstacles. Among them is transporting the fish.
“We’re limited by access for the trucks. We looked at using a helicopter to get fish in to some of the more remote locations, but we can’t figure out how to carry them,” Ladley said.
Plans to use the helicopter’s fire buckets were dropped because the opening at the bottom wasn’t large enough for the fish to pass through.
“There are some remote places we want to get fish to, but we can’t get the trucks in there,” he said.
Another frustration has been the lack of chinook salmon they’ve been able to move above the dam. Puget Sound chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
“We haven’t seen the chinook return we’ve been hoping for, but we haven’t been able to get the number of fish we hoped for,” Ladley said.
On this particular day, only two chinook made the trip to Deer Creek.
“I would love to get 1,000 kings up there. But the most we’ve gotten is 450 in a season,” Ladley said.
For coho, listed as a species of concern by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the ESA, the program has been a success.
“It’s been great for coho. We know that from seeing the fish in the ladder, and in the spring we see the unmarked fish on their way down the river,” Ladley said.
Since 1997, the tribe has moved more than 7,000 adult coho to Deer Creek alone. Another 2,400 coho have been moved to the Mowich River, and more than 2,000 have been taken to Rushingwater Creek. So far this year, crews have moved more than 1,860 adult coho above the dam.
All in all, Ladley and Smith say the effort is worthwhile.
“A lot of these surplus fish went to cat food or institutional food,” Ladley said.
Instead, the program can help boost coho runs, increasing the chance for Puyallup River anglers to take home a fresh-caught coho. State fishing regulations prohibit nontribal anglers from keeping any wild chinook salmon they catch.
“It’s been very successful so far, surprisingly so. We definitely get a lot of fish spawning and a lot of juveniles in the spring, plus it puts a lot of nutrients into the water when the spawned-out fish decay,” Smith said.
“It’s a way to get the fish spread out, so they’re using the whole system,” he added.
In three years, the hope is that the progeny of the 500 coho taken to Deer Creek this day will use the fish ladder to return and begin the cycle anew.
Places to see salmon
Voights Creek hatchery: Located at 19112 Pioneer Way, Orting. Take the first left after crossing the Voights Creek bridge on Highway 162 east of Orting. You can see salmon, mainly silvers, in the holding pond, as well as watch staff members rearing young salmon and stripping returning salmon of their eggs. Best time to see the return silvers is October and November. For hours, call 360-893-6440.
Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail: Located halfway between Olympia and Shelton, it is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends through Thanksgiving weekend. Kennedy Creek is a rearing stream for chum salmon. Volunteer trail guides will be available to answer questions. For information, call 360-754-6464 or go to
http://www.spsseg.org. The trail is located off U.S. Highway 101. Turn west on Old Olympic Highway, and look for a gravel road signed “Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail.” Follow that road to the parking lot.
Ballard locks: The fish ladder at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks is a well-known salmon-watching location. Silver and king salmon will pass through the locks from August to November. Sockeye salmon usually pass through the locks in June and July. It’s at 3015 N.W. 54th St. in Seattle; 206-783-7059. About COHO salmon
Also known as: Oncorhynchus kisutch, silver salmon
Average size: 6-12 pounds, but can reach up to 31 pounds
Life cycle: Coho have a very regular life history. They are deposited in the gravel as eggs in the fall, emerge from the gravel the next spring, and in their second spring go to sea, about 18 months after being deposited. Coho fry are usually found in the pools of small coastal streams and the tributaries of larger rivers.
Spawning: Coho spawn in small coastal streams and the tributaries of larger rivers. According to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, they prefer areas of mid-velocity water with small- to medium-sized gravel. Because they use small streams with limited space, they must use many such streams to successfully reproduce, which is why coho can be found in just about every small coastal stream with a year-round flow.
Why they change colors: When coho are ready to spawn, they undergo some remarkable physical changes – as do all salmon species. Males will develop a very pronounced hook jaw and turn from a silvery body to purplish-red and green. Females also change color, but of lighter tones. The change is to aid recognition of a fellow coho and to attract a mate. “It’s all about mating and success in mating,” said Blake Smith of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.
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