State Tries To Revive Wild Steelhead Run Hatcheries Raise 40,000 In First Of Four-Year Plan
About 40,000 young steelhead are being reared in state hatcheries in a bid to resurrect the Lake Washington steelhead run, decimated by change and by voracious sea lions that considered the fish ladder at the Ballard locks a smorgasboard.
The project marks the first time the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery has been used to help rebuild one of Washington’s wild fish runs, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said.
Last winter and spring, agency biologists - helped by Trout Unlimited volunteers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - captured 24 steelhead at the boat locks, which connect Puget Sound with lakes Union and Washington. The 14 males and 10 females were mated at a hatchery and the eggs incubated.
Now the smolt that resulted will spend their first year in state hatcheries, a move biologists believe will increase their survival rate over what it would have been in the wild. At least 10,000 will arrive Wednesday at the Issaquah hatchery.
After that year, the young steelhead will be released in Lake Washington and some of its northern tributaries. All will be marked so biologists can track their progress, with those that return to spawn allowed to do so naturally.
State biologists plan to capture wild steelhead for the breeding program for the next four years or so, depending on the results. The effort could be halted early if scientists find enough steelhead are returning to spawn to restore the run to health.
A total of 40,000 steelhead will be raised this year at two state hatcheries - Issaquah and Palmer Ponds, said Kathy Hopper, who oversees department hatcheries in the north Puget Sound area. Each hatchery will get about half the young fish.
“We’re hopeful that this project is just the first of several at the Issaquah facility that will focus on enhancing Lake Washington wild fish runs,” she said.
The Legislature last spring approved $3 million in renovations for the hatchery, which raised about 6 million coho and chinook in 1996.