Rebuilding Salmon & Steelhead Populations › Glenwood Springs Hatchery

Updates

Winter 2011 Updates from Glenwood Springs Hatchery
Posted on: December 7th, 2011

 

The latest updates and news about our programs at Glenwood Springs Hatchery on Orcas Island.

Glenwood Springs Chinook program: More than 2,200 Chinook made their way back from the ocean to Glenwood Springs Hatchery on Orcas Island this fall. This was great news for our program, which, between 2004 and 2009, had less than 50 Chinook return each year. The increase in returns is the result of numerous modifications made to the program combined with improved ocean conditions.

Orcas Community Turns Out In Droves to See Glenwood Chinook Return to Hatchery: More than 80 people turned out for LLTK’s first public Salmon Homecoming Open House event at Glenwood Springs Hatchery on September 25. Attendees enjoyed science displays, facility tours, and opportunities to get up-close-and-personal with some of the 2,200 Chinook that returned to Glenwood Springs Hatchery this fall. The Open House followed our annual luncheon at the home of Jim and Kathy Youngren, where guests heard a presentation from NOAA researcher Vera Trainer.

For updates on programs based at our Lilliwaup Hatchery on Hood Canal, click here >

Chinook, Events, Fish Programs, Glenwood Springs, Mike O'Connell, Orcas Island, Projects

Over 1,300 Chinook Return to our Glenwood Springs Hatchery!
Posted on: September 12th, 2011

Hatchery Manager Mike O'Connell with a big Chinook

The Chinook are returning to our Glenwood Springs Hatchery! To-date, over 1,300 Chinook have made their way back from the ocean and into our hatchery, and there are many more jumping in the bay, preparing to climb the ladder.

We are still early in the return period, and we have already surpassed last year's return of 750. This is great news for our program, which, between 2004 and 2009, had less than 50 Chinook return each year. After numerous modifications to our hatchery program and one year of importing eggs from other hatchery programs to ensure that we have enough fish to rear and release, we are back on our feet (or should we say fins?) again!

Chinook, Fish Programs, Glenwood Springs, Hatchery Reform, Projects

Spring Project Updates from Glenwood Springs Hatchery
Posted on: June 22nd, 2011

Mike O'Connell with hatchery visitors

Spring of 2011 brought mass-marking and coded wire tagging to Glenwood Springs. The goal of our Glenwood Springs program is to provide opportunities for northern Puget Sound sport fisheries that are consistent with wild fish recovery. To help accomplish that goal, we “mark” the fish produced at the Glenwood facility by removing the adipose fin on the back of the fish so hatchery origin fish can be identified and kept in the fishery while wild fish are released.

Tagging fish with coded wire tags allows fishery managers to track where fish are caught, providing information on migration and contribution of Glenwood fish to the fishery.

We mass-marked all 590,000+ zero-age Chinook released this spring. Of those, 100,000 received coded wire tags. We also mass-marked 130,000+ Coho for our Coho yearling program," said Mike O'Connell, Glenwood Springs Hatchery Manager. "We are hoping to start seeing adult Chinook arriving back to the hatchery bay sometime in August."

In order to complete the marking and tagging, Glenwood employed 15 people full-time from late April through the first week of June with the aid of WDFW's Eric Mattson and a WDFW mass-marking trailer. Northwest Marine Technology donated the coded wire tags, tag injectors and quality control machines.

The Glenwood facility is increasingly becoming a center of learning about salmon life history, production and fisheries in the north Sound. To that end, Mike conducted salmon biology training for both WSU "Beach Watchers" program and Friday Harbor Whale Museum's "Naturalist Training Program." So far this year, the hatchery has played host to two Skagit Valley College Elderhostel tours, and more will continue each month through October, he reported.

Juvenile salmon can be affected by conditions they encounter as they enter the marine environment. This spring, Dr. Vera Trainer (NOAA - Pacific Northwest Fisheries Research Center) and Dr. Charlie Trick (University of Western Ontario) conducted tests on Glenwood's zero-age Chinook with Cultured Heterosigma species, a bloom-forming and potentially toxic marine algae, to evaluate impacts on juvenile salmon.
 

Algal Blooms, Glenwood Springs, Hatchery Reform, Heterosigma Akashiwo, Orcas Island, Projects, Selective Fisheries, WDFW

LLTK's Glenwood Springs Hatchery In Local News - Chinook Returns Running Well Ahead Of Recent Years
Posted on: September 25th, 2010

LLTK's Glenwood Springs Hatchery has been the subject of two recent Islands' Sounder articles:

Long Live The Salmon: King Salmon Returning In Greater Numbers To Orcas Island Hatchery

Orcas Hatchery Shares Salmon With Food Bank And School

Chinook, Glenwood Springs, Orcas Island, Projects

Spring at Glenwood: Marking and Tagging Coho and Chinook for Selective Fishing
Posted on: May 14th, 2010

Tagging

Glenwood Springs Hatchery provides sport and commercial fishing opportunities in northern Puget Sound and southern Georgia Strait through its Chinook and coho programs. Marking and tagging these fish is a key operational aspect of Glenwood Hatchery. We began our 2010 marking and tagging season in late April and will continue through mid-May.

All Chinook and coho reared and released from Glenwood Springs are “marked” by having their adipose fins clipped. This enables fishers to identify them as being from a hatchery, and therefore okay to keep.

“This year to-date, we have released 140,000 coho from Glenwood Springs,” reports Hatchery Manager Mike O'Connell. “In late May/early June, we will release approximately 550,000 fall Chinook.”

100,000 of those Chinook will be 'tagged' with tiny coded-wires that indicate the specific hatchery from which they came, as well as other information like their release date.

Mike notes: “The data ultimately collected from the wire tags allows us to better understand their contribution to harvest and determine whether the adult fish that are supposed to return to the hatchery are 'straying' and commingling with wild fish in streams where they are not supposed to end up.”

Chinook tagging is made possible by the generous support of Northwest Marine Technology, which donates coded wire tags, the injector units, and the quality control detectors (to make sure the tags were injected properly) that we use every year to complete the tagging.

Chinook, Coho, Glenwood Springs, Orcas Island, Projects, Selective Fisheries