Salmon Hatchery

On Thursday last week we visted the Douglas Island Pink and chum Hatchery in Juneau.

Every year millions of salmon return to this hatchery where they were hatched years before. They make their way up this fish ladder in the Gastineau Channel.

After the fish are about a year old they are held in these holding pens outside so that the smell of this location will imprint and they will return to spawn.

Here are some baby King Salmon, below are the tanks where they are raised.

The fish are marked using an interesting method. Durring the development of the egg the temperature of the water is raised about 4 degrees f. This causes a stress which shows up in the growth patterns of the earbones in the fish. Each year a unique "code" is used to mark the fishes place and year of hatch. Below is a bad photo of some otoliths or earbones.

The hatchery also had a cool aquarium and touch tank.

King Salmon. They are not retuning to some of the streams in large enough numbers, so the catch limit on these guys is zero in some places. Last year the limit was one per person.