6 Million Chinook Fry Die At Gig Harbor Hatchery

GIG HARBOR, WA - The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates more than 6 million Chinook salmon fry died at the Minter Creek Hatchery in Gig Harbor last week following a power outage at the facility. A severe windstorm reportedly knocked out power to the pump that provides water to the incubators in which the fry were kept.

The loss accounts for nearly 10 percent of the hatchery's annual yield, which also includes chum and coho salmon.

"This is a devastating loss," WDFW Hatchery Division Manager Eric Kinne said in a statement. "The department is conducting an analysis to determine the root cause of what went wrong so that we can improve procedures at Minter Creek and our other hatcheries to help ensure this doesn't happen again."

During a power loss the hatchery would typically rely on the facility's backup generators, but those backups failed. Other methods to bring water to the incubators were also "largely unsuccessful," WDFW officials said.

All told, the hatchery lost 4.2 million Deschutes fall chinook fry, 1.5 million Minter Creek fall chinook fry, and 507,000 White River spring chinook fry. More than 4 million chum salmon and 2 million coho salmon survived the outage.

The facility was reportedly raising the White River spring chinook to provide food for endangered southern resident orcas. Officials will seek help from other hatcheries to see if they can replace any of the lost fry.

The chinook were reportedly scheduled for release in spring 2019.

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