May-June, 2023
I kept driving past this sign that said “fish hatchery”. Every time I went anywhere in my big white truck, or with my camping friends in their vehicle, we drove past this sign. Today as I drove past this sign by myself on my way to somewhere, I decided to make a quick turn, to drive in and see what I could see. I’m glad I did!
First off, here’s a Google Earth image of the fish hatchery. Turns out it’s one of the largest fish hatcheries in the USA.
Below, back down on the earth, here’s the main administration building. Besides admin offices, it had tons of exhibits and explanations.
I’ll share just five photos with you from those exhibits. First photo is salmon. Next four photos after that are the predators of salmon!
There are other predators too … bear and river otters and raccoons here inland … predators out in the ocean include Orca, seals, sharks, and even halibut and tuna. Lots of folks like to eat salmon.
But back here at the Leavenworth fish hatchery, let’s read a bit about the history of this hatchery. [“Steelhead” by the way, is a variety of trout that breeds up in rivers but travels to the ocean and back, similar to how salmon do that.]
So, how do the fish get here to this hatchery? And what happens to them when they get here?
The photo below is also from Google Earth but with arrows by me. 🙂 The RED arrow is Icicle Creek flowing downhill. That downhill flowing water runs across a human-made spillway or raceway that the fish swimming UP-river cannot get over … the water is running too fast and the spillway is too tall. So, the fish, who are swimming up-river (the largest YELLOW arrow) reach the bottom of that spillway and cannot proceed. So they turn and climb the fish ladder and end up in the Leavenworth fish hatchery where they are collected for further distribution and gathering of eggs and such.
The photo below is of the spillway.
And here’s a very short video of the spillway, taken while I was looking up at the water flowing downhill.
The fish ladder, below, was a much easier option for the salmon! Jump once, rest in the calm parts, jump again, etc.
Eventually, the fish climb that ladder, then are collected and sorted in the facility in the photo below.
Here’s a photo (below) of the construction of the spillway … maybe you can see how huge it is!
Ah, but then the fish have arrived using that fish ladder, and they are intent on spawning. So the eggs are removed from the females and sperm is removed from the males. Had they been able to spawn naturally, the adults would then die. So the fish here are killed humanely (I’ve watched it), and the process of incubating the fertilized eggs then proceeds. They are incubated in trays, and then as the eggs grow they are moved to the larger green tanks. Be sure to read the sign in the photo below.
When they get big enough, the fry are moved outside, outdoors … into other tanks that are roofed (to keep the water cooler) or to tanks that have no roof (for older fry).
Roofed tanks to the right. Unroofed tanks to the left. Don’t miss the mountain scenery.
Older/original tanks above that are not often used any more. Newer uncovered tanks will be shown below.
And these newer roofed tanks were pretty cool.
Two levels in the tanks, to separate the fish, to help with cleaning, to help with cooling (or warming) depending on morning or afternoon angle of the sun.
And then the newer HUGE covered tanks … and maintenance.
And the newer huge uncovered tanks … and maintenance.
There are plenty of eagles hereabouts … and other birds and mammals who would love to find a way to get into these tanks and eat the salmon fry. So the tanks have screened mesh covers on them that are hinged and can be raised or lowered (opened or closed) … just like a door in your home is hinged.
The very long mesh “door” is on the left in the photo above and can be lowered to cover the water.
Below … the hand crank that raises or lowers those really long mesh screens.
In the photo below, the screen/mesh doors are lowered/closed. This first tank has screen on only part of the “door”. I don’t know why and there was no one around handy that I could ask. If you can enlarge the photo below and look at tanks further to the right, you’ll see some of those tanks have more screen mesh on their “doors”.
The young salmon, known as “fry”, feed on insects and other small organisms and on food fed to them by hatchery staff. As the fry grow, they are eventually released back into Icicle Creek and then swim downstream to larger rivers and eventually to the ocean. Icicle Creek feeds into the Wenatchee River which feeds into the Columbia River which flows into the mighty Pacific Ocean.
Here is a photo of Chinook Salmon fry … ready to be released so they can find their way back to the ocean. The cycle continues.
I love finding things/places/people like this fish hatchery while I’m out camping … places that I couldn’t have planned to visit because I didn’t know they were there. I love learning! 🙂
Wow. That’s all amazing. I have seen signs for fish hatchery places too and I’ve never stopped by. I guess I should.
Yes you should. 🙂 And post your photos please.
This was super. In my boating years, I sure fished a lot and loved to have a salmon on the hook and so very much appreciated these fish hatcheries that kept native salmon alive and healthy. This was a great blog. Thank you.
Oh … don’t eat farmed fish! Please don’t support that industry. The fish can be diseased and spread the disease within the “herd” while the fish farm employees don’t know it. Waste water from a fish farm is extremely detrimental to surrounding habitat of fish and shellfish and birds and water mammals … the waste from the fish themselves is so concentrated that it pollutes the water, add to that a significant death rate of fish in farms and the fact that the dead fish aren’t cleaned out often enough. Fish farms often use chemical pesticides in the water to reduce bugs that eat fish and create disease. The list of reasons not to support fish farms goes on and on. Farmed fish are not fed well, often fed soy-based products resulting in fish that are not healthy for humans.
Support the wild-caught fish folks please. And you’ll have healthier and better tasting fish, and you’ll support these fish hatcheries.
I’m with you Rob. I do not buy/eat farmed fish. For one thing farmed fish is often “preserved/soaked” in brine partly to keep them “wet” before processing (so they don’t have to process them right away, so the fish have been stored dead for awhile), partly to change their flavor, and MOSTLY to add weight to the fish for sale in grocery stores. Have you ever bought frozen fish, then cooked it, and had a bit of white-ish soup around it? That’s the brine they use to soak the fish in. I buy fresh caught, never frozen. Yum. 🙂
I’ve never been to a fish hatchery, didn’t know anything about them. This was great! And yes, Rob, I will make sure I buy wild-caught fish from now on.
If you can get to a fish hatchery, they sure are worth a visit, Ben. Even if they aren’t in the midst of harvesting eggs, any time of year is great.
At the beginning of fish hatcheries, first nation people didn’t like them. But now these places have proven to support the health and reproduction of millions of fish, without all the negative things that Rob talks about in his comment about farmed fish. Please do not buy farmed fish! Thank you Rob.
Very nicely done here, and nicely shown.
Thanks Mary. We can learn a lot from each other … we can learn a lot from you.
Fascinating information and processes. And gorgeous country!
Oh that country is so grand! And yet, still, most of the peaks in the photos in this blog are called hills, not mountains. Maybe this next year I’ll get up into some real mountains. 🙂
As many years as I’ve been a boater and lived here in the pacific northwest, I’ve never fished. Don’t know much about fish. This was fascinating. When is the best time of year to go see a fish hatchery in operation?
I’ve been a boater for 28 years here too, Mark, and I didn’t fish either. So all of this is new to me too. My suggestion is that you contact one or two fish hatcheries near you that you’d like to visit and ask them when spawning season happens. There are springs runs, and summer runs, and fall runs, and even winter runs … depends on the variety of the fish … and it depends on which variety any specific hatchery works with. So give them a call, and go. It’s fascinating and makes for a great day out. Take a friend. 🙂
Used to fish as a kid with my folks in Wisconsin, but I know nothing about fish hatcheries. I just looked online and there are 11 fish hatcheries in Wisconsin! I didn’t know that! 🙂 One of them is less than an hour away from where I live. Ok, a new adventure. yay!
I knew there were thousands (millions?) of lakes in Wisconsin but I didn’t know they had fish hatcheries too. That’s cool. Yes go! 🙂
I’ve been a fisherman most of my life, all sorts of fish, mostly salmon and trout, whether on saltwater or up the rivers. Janey and I have been to the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery (hey, another place that you and we have been Ann!!) and it is every bit as impressive as Ann shows it to be. But I don’t remember that spillway, but it had to have been there when we were last there. Ok, Janey tells me it was there. Sure is fun traveling around the Pacific Northwest with you Ann, even online, but sometimes for real. Let’s meet up one of these days. Happy trails. 🙂
Jim
Yep, Janey is always right, you know that. 🙂
And yes, another place we’ve both been, I like that! And yes it would be super to meet up one of these days. Because you comment here, I have your email address, so I’ve sent you mine. Let’s keep in touch about RVing plans this year (2024). I have no idea what mine are yet. 🙂
I always thought they brought in fish from other places to raise in these hatcheries, but that’s not so. It’s just the native fish that come back up that particular river to spawn, then the hatchery raises their eggs into fish large enough to go back to the ocean. So there are many times more fish returning to the ocean with this process than if the fish were allowed to spawn by themselves. This was great. Beautiful country too.
In fact, there is at least one hatchery here in Washington that shut down, in order to let the native fish come back up all the way through the river to their natural spawning grounds, in order to rebuild that native fish population. Yes, they were bringing in fry from other harvests, other locations, and raising them in this one place. But the resulting fish weren’t healthy. So they shut it down! Good for them, State of Washington Fisheries, I suppose. They say that when the native fish are plentiful enough, then they will think about re-opening the hatchery solely for the native fish. Change can be good. A new direction can be excellent.
Excellent photos and description. Enjoyed the detail on the gates to the fish pens.
Thanks Greg. And yes, I called them “tanks” but they are correctly called “pens”. I appreciate the gentle correction. 🙂
🙂