Salmon Spawns Next Generation From Grave Sperm Bank Helps Larry Live On

Lonesome Larry, the only sockeye salmon to return to Redfish Lake in 1992, still is siring salmon.

Considering Larry’s been dead for five years, that’s a notable feat.

Larry couldn’t do it without the help of a University of Idaho sperm bank, where his precious sperm is held at a frigid minus-106 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen.

“Last year, we sent Lonely Larry’s sperm down to Eagle (fish hatchery) and we have 45 fish that are derived from Lonely Larry this year,” said UI biology professor Joseph Cloud.

Cloud is one of several speakers at a conference today at UI. Scientists from around the country will share information on the use of sperm banks to preserve the genes of threatened and endangered fish.

“In some ways, it’s not a new thing at all,” Cloud said. “They’ve been freezing sperm from bulls since the early ‘50s and freezing human sperm since the early ‘60s.”

But while human sperm banks give individuals the chance to have a family, salmon sperm banks could help an entire species survive.

If the Snake River chinook salmon were to disappear, Cloud explained, biologists could take another stock of chinook and fertilize its eggs with the extinct stock’s semen. That could be done with successive generations until the genetic makeup closely resembled that of the extinct stock.

But to bring back many fish from the dead, UI’s small sperm operation would have to spawn something larger.

“I’d like to see an organized venture in the Northwest for the Pacific salmon,” Cloud said. “Someday, I would like to see a national repository.”

, DataTimes