Conservation program hopes to boost kokanee population
November 30, 2009
By Warren Kagarise
The threatened kokanee salmon could receive a lift from a regional effort to restore habitat and increase the kokanee population.
Throughout fall, Issaquah Salmon Hatchery workers and volunteers collected almost 35,000 eggs as part of a regional effort to restore the vulnerable fish.
The eggs were collected from adult fish captured by biologists. After the kokanee were spawned at the Issaquah hatchery, the eggs were sent to the Cedar River Hatchery. The offspring will spend the first few months of their lives at the hatchery, and then be released into the wild.
Lake Sammamish kokanee are similar to sockeye salmon, but kokanee are smaller and live in landlocked bodies of water. Kokanee spend their entire lives in fresh water.
Most adult fish migrate from the lake into streams to spawn.
A smaller number of kokanee spawn along the Lake Sammamish shoreline, particularly in areas with rain-fed springs.
King County Water and Land Resources Division ecologist Hans Berge said officials hoped the hatchery would be a temporary measure to help restore kokanee.
“Our long-term goal is to have a viable, self-sustaining and fishable population — one that doesn’t need the support of a hatchery,” he said in a county news release.
Kokanee, like other salmon species, die after spawning is complete.
The decomposing carcasses provide food for organisms throughout the watershed.
Berge said a naturally spawning population would ensure that the Lake Sammamish watershed receives nutritional benefits from the spawned salmon.
Friends of the Issaquah Hatchery Executive Director Gestin Suttle said the program would be “vital to keep the run going.”
Although she expressed optimism about the effort, she said it remained unclear whether the program would be successful.
Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon were once plentiful enough to support a recreational fishery and form the foundation of a robust ecosystem that sustained numerous other fish and wildlife species. Moreover, Lake Sammamish kokanee were once a staple for the Snoqualmie Tribe.
But the kokanee population plummeted as a result of habitat loss and other factors.
Biologists found fewer than 50 adult fish in the streams feeding Lake Sammamish last year.
Scientists continue to investigate the causes of the kokanee decline. Besides habitat loss, other possible culprits include changes in stream flow patterns — due to land development and vegetation loss — climate change, predation and water quality.
Habitat improvements in major kokanee spawning streams are also a part of the restoration effort.
Chad Jackson, a fishery biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the restoration program aims to counter the habitat and population loss.
“Our goal is to stabilize and possibly bolster the abundance of kokanee spawning in Lake Sammamish’s tributaries until their habitat is restored and these fish can increase in numbers without the need for hatchery supplementation,” he said in the news release.
In the short term, the hatchery program will be used to increase the numbers of the fish. The long-term strategy includes protection and restoration of kokanee habitat.
Jackson said only a portion of the total spawning run was collected for the program.
“We are being very careful to make sure that sufficient numbers of kokanee are spawning naturally,” he said.
The strategy has many partners in the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group.
Issaquah is part of the work group; so are the cities of Sammamish, Bellevue and Redmond.
King County, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are also partners. The environmental advocacy groups Save Lake Sammamish and Trout Unlimited are in the group as well, along with residents of the watershed.
The group also supports other measures to restore the kokanee population.
Those include a tagging study — supported by the Trout Unlimited Adopt-a-Kokanee program — to learn more about how the salmon species, their predators and their prey use the lake habitat; habitat projects; the development and distribution of educational brochures to encourage actions to conserve kokanee; and testing at the Issaquah hatchery to assess the potential of the facility to serve as the long-term home of the supplementation program.
Conservationists seeking to protect threatened Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon received a boost from the King County Council in June, when the council called on federal officials to list kokanee under the Endangered Species Act.
The listing would require officials to develop a recovery plan and designate critical habitat. Penalties would also be put in place for people found harming the salmon or damaging habitat.
Doug Williams, a spokesman for the county Department of Natural Resources and Parks, said the federal government has yet to issue a decision about the endangered species designation.
Williams said biologists and ecologists used dip nets to collect fish from the Lake Sammamish watershed.
Tromping through streams near the lake, the team grabbed about three dozen kokanee pairs. Then, the adult kokanee were taken to the Issaquah hatchery for spawning.
Hatchery workers and volunteers collected 34,700 eggs.
After the offspring mature at the Cedar River Hatchery, the fry will be introduced to the Lake Sammamish watershed.
Reach reporter Warren Kagarise at 392-6434, ext. 234, or wkagarise@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
New: November 30, 2:57 p.m.
The threatened kokanee salmon could receive a lift from a regional effort to restore habitat and increase the kokanee population.
Throughout fall, Issaquah Salmon Hatchery workers and volunteers collected almost 35,000 eggs as part of a regional effort to restore the vulnerable fish.
The eggs were collected from adult fish captured by biologists. After the kokanee were spawned at the Issaquah hatchery, the eggs were sent to the Cedar River Hatchery. The offspring will spend the first few months of their lives at the hatchery, and then be released into the wild. Read more
