MOUNT BAKER-SNOQUALMIE NATIONAL FOREST — Record-breaking numbers of coho and sockeye salmon are being released from Baker Lake in the Upper Skagit Valley. That's great news for people who fish and those who depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood.
The juvenile salmon netted in Baker Lake are near the end of their journey from hatchery to lake to tank inside Puget Sound Energy’s flowing service collector.
From there the fish travel down something akin to a Slip 'n' Slide that shoots out into an enormous transport container.
“We’ll turn the water flow off, close the lid and lift them out,” explained Doug Bruland, who manages the FSC.
The salmon are headed for salt water -- this year -- in record numbers.
“This facility is state-of-the-art so we are able to capture fish that in the past we were never able to get,” Bruland said.
He said since its construction in 2008, the FSC has been bumping up sockeye and coho salmon production numbers.
“In 2014 we broke a record and we were pretty proud of it so we got -- by the end of the season we got 1,037,000.”
With nearly two months of the season left Bruland said they’ve already beat that number by 7,000.
“I expect we could get another 100,000, so we would be at 1.15 million,” he said.
From a cultural standpoint Scott Schuyler, the policy rep for Upper Skagit Tribe, said these numbers allow his people to return to their roots.
“I have a teenage daughter and she fishes the Baker [River] with me. What’s important for us if my tribe occupied the Baker Valley and for us to fish in our traditional areas in our village location -- I can’t describe what that means for us and our membership,” Schuyler said.
But what it means economically for the tribe is life changing as unemployment has long been an issue.
“The fishery employs 25 boats or so which in turn employs many deckhands from different households so it’s a really big thing for us to have this going on,” Schuyler said.
While the record-breaking production is certainly a reason to celebrate the real celebration will happen in about two years when these salmon return to Baker Lake. That likely means record-breaking returns of upward of 50,000 fish.
Cox Media Group
