Male Chinook selected for spawning

Over the last few weeks WDFW and Squaxin Island Natural Resources staff have been busy spawning hatchery Fall Chinook returning to the Tumwater Falls Hatchery.  Pictures from Wednesday October 6th, 2010 spawning.  Video Clip

Approximately 3,000 adult Chinook (1,500 females/1,500 males) are needed to return to the hatchery for spawning to continue the program.   Eggs and milt are then taken from returning Chinook for future production.  Approximately 4.8 million eggs are taken, sometimes more to support other hatchery programs around the Puget Sound.  So far about 4,000 Chinook have returned to Tumwater Falls.

Once eggs are fertilized, incubated and reared at Minter and Coulter Creek Hatcheries,  about 3.8 million are released as juveniles at Tumwater Falls in late spring  (at about 70 chinook to the lbs.).