Tacoma Power releases sockeye salmon into Lake Cushman for first time

It’s a fishy first.

Tacoma Public Utilities last month crews released 30,000 sockeye salmon smolt into Lake Cushman, a Tacoma Power-managed reservoir in Mason County.

Tacoma Power received the sockeye eggs in December 2016 and incubated them in the Saltwater Park Sockeye Hatchery along Hood Canal.

After a couple of years growing in Lake Cushman, the salmon will be caught in a floating fish collector along the Cushman No. 1 Dam and then released into the North Fork Skokomish River.

There are approximately 220,000 additional sockeye at Tacoma Power’s Saltwater Park hatchery that will be released later this year.

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Tacoma Power releases sockeye salmon into Lake Cushman for first time."