In recent months, we have covered such topics as fishing techniques and local “hotspots.” Now we would like to share something that many fishing enthusiasts overlook during their fishing trips. It is the influence of hatcheries on the local fisheries. For this story, we are going to be talking primarily about our local hatchery, the Prince of Wales Hatchery Association (POWHA), which is the second oldest hatchery in the state of Alaska. What many don’t know is the sheer quantity of salmon produced from this hatchery, and how much of an impact it has and will have on our salmon fishing future.

Coho
For the past few years, POWHA has produced and released more Coho (Silver) salmon than any other hatchery in the state of Alaska. Yearly, they have been taking 5,000,000 eggs to be incubated and raised in their ponds. Approximately 18 months later, close to 4,250,000 smolt (baby salmon) are released into the wild to continue their lifecycle. By releasing this many smolt, the numbers of returning, mature, hatchery Coho to our local waters are in the neighborhood of 350,000. Commercial fishermen, approximately 60%-70%, intercept many of these with the balance going to sports fishermen, charter boats, local subsistence fishermen, or returning to the hatchery.

Chinook
Another species being raised by POWHA is the Chinook (King) salmon. In an effort to bring a local Chinook run, this hatchery began a new program about five years ago. After their first year of trying to raise Chinook, 104,000 smolt were released into local waters. Being a relatively new program, there is no scientific information on what the return levels will be for this upcoming year. However, based on Coho return ratios, everyone is hoping for an extra 9500 Chinook salmon to be swimming through our local waters in June. Since the first year of Chinook production at POWHA, the hatchery has worked at increasing egg production to 500,000 a year. One possibility of this Chinook program in the future is for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to declare increased limits within certain fishing zones, as this program has been deemed a “terminal fishery.” What this means is that the Chinook will not be allowed to spawn naturally and will only be produced by the hatchery. Unfortunately, this increase in limits cannot happen for a few years until enough data is received regarding the numbers of returning Chinook.

Local & Distant Hatcheries
We hope the information presented in this article will demonstrate the beneficial influence that hatcheries have on our local fishery. Even distant hatcheries impact our region. This past summer, we submitted the heads from hatchery fish (denoted by a clipped Adipose Fin) caught at Waterfall. The data gathered from the tagged fish established that many originated from the local hatchery; however, some were from as far away as British Columbia and Washington.

For additional information, go to www.powhasalmon.org (the website is a little outdated) or call 907.755.2231. POWHA is a non-profit organization and will gratefully accept donations.

Of course you can always contact me at 907.265.9650 or scott@waterfallresort.com.

Thanks for your interest and we hope to see you at Waterfall next summer!

Scott McKelvey
Operations Manager
Waterfall Resort
POWHA Board Member

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.