State replaces nearly half of 6.2 million chinook salmon fry killed at Gig Harbor hatchery

The state will be able to replace nearly half of the 6.2 million chinook salmon fry that died earlier this month when a windstorm knocked out power at a Gig Harbor hatchery.

Up to 2.75 million fall chinook fry will be taken from six other state hatcheries for release from Minter Creek and Tumwater Falls in May and June.

“This won’t fully replace the salmon lost last week, but it will allow us to put a significant number of fish into these waters next year,” said Kelly Susewind, director of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A power outage Dec. 14, coupled with the failure of Minter Creek Hatchery’s backup generator, led to the death of 4.2 million Deschutes fall chinook fry, 1.5 million Minter Creek fall chinook fry and 507,000 White River spring chinook fry.

Employees were unable to get the generator working during the storm and were unsuccessful in getting water into the incubators where the fish were held.

Officials said the loss of spring chinook was particularly painful because they were meant to help feed the dwindling population of southern resident orcas, which are endangered.

The department is increasing chinook production at other hatcheries to compensate for the loss.

“Losing those fish was a painful setback for state and tribal fishers, for the communities that depend on fishing and for southern resident orcas that feed on chinook,” Susewind said.

A contractor has been hired to look into what went wrong with Minter Creek Hatchery during the power failure in hopes of preventing future loss of chinook fry.

About 6.2 million fish at the hatchery survived the power outage, including coho salmon and chum salmon.

This story was originally published December 25, 2018 at 4:00 PM.