It’s pretty obvious that Salmon Days wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the fish. The Issaquah Salmon Hatchery is a main attraction for the city year round, but especially during Salmon Days.
The hatchery, which dates back to 1936, raises two types of salmon, Executive Director of Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, or FISH, Gestin Suttle said. Both Chinook and Coho salmon eggs are harvested, fertilized and then raised at the hatchery. Sockeye also often spawn in Issaquah Creek, but they are not raised at the hatchery.
“The first to come back are the Chinook,” Suttle said. “Then come the Sockeye and then the Coho. Salmon Days is time for the best time to see all three.”
Some of the salmon spawn right under the bridge at the hatchery, while others, in an attempt to get even farther up stream, swim up the fish ladder. Sometimes if too many fish try and go up the ladder, which leads to a holding tank, the ladder is shut down.
“There just isn’t enough oxygen in the water,” Suttle explains. Sometimes it takes the fish a while to figure out they can’t get up and they will continue to attempt to hurl themselves up the ladder. This sometimes causes alarm with guests at the hatchery, but Suttle says that the pain receptors aren’t quite the same for fish as for humans so they don’t feel it as much.
For those fish that spawn down stream from the ladder, hatchery workers do not interfere and the female salmon do it the way countless others have.
First they create a redd — their nest — by getting on their side flapping their tail to create a series of depressions. Once the eggs are laid, a male salmon comes along and releases his milt, to fertilize the eggs. Oftentimes more than one male fertilizes the eggs, Suttle said.
That is nearly the end of the life cycle for the salmon which die anywhere from 24 hours to two weeks after spawning.
All the stages can be seen from the bridge at the hatchery. However, a word to the wise — the bridge gets very crowded during Salmon Days.
During Salmon Days there are many guides throughout the hatchery for anyone with questions. However the guides are not located on the bridge, since it is so crowded, and they are not giving tours, just information. There will also be a booth in the front of the hatchery giving out information.
The Issaquah Hatchery is a huge part of the Washington State Salmon Recovery program. Eighty-five percent of the Chinook salmon that go through the Ballard Locks are headed to Issaquah. This year has seen about 1,100 Chinook, sending about 850 here. This is nowhere near the record breaking year last year, which saw 30,000 through the locks. This year’s numbers are about average, Suttle said.
“They initially thought it was going to be another record year,” Suttle said. “But now they are just saying average.”
The numbers aren’t yet known for the Coho salmon, as they are just beginning to make their way into the water system, however the Sockeye salmon numbers are way down, from the norm of about 100,000 to only 30,000 this year.
One of the big events that can be seen at the hatchery during Salmon Days is when the fish are taken to the “Love Shack,” as Suttle calls it.
Fish that make it up the ladder into the holding tank — which has glass viewing windows for visitors — are sent into the spawning shed. The back doors on the shed are open during Salmon Days so that visitors can see the steps it takes to harvest the eggs and milt. The salmon are knocked unconscious and killed.
“It’s the most humane way since they are already dying (when they arrive at the spawning grounds),” Suttle said.
The eggs are then taken from the females and the milt is squeezed from the males. The eggs are then fertilized, incubated and raised at the hatchery until they are old enough to be released into Issaquah Creek in the spring.
In a few years, once the fish are full grown (about 15-20 pounds for the Chinook and 10 pounds for the Coho) they return to the Issaquah Creek, just in time for another appearance at Salmon Days.
For more information on the hatchery, visit issaquahfish.org.
