Nutrition Enhancement

  The Pacific Coast Salmon Coalition and the Sol Duc Salmon Hatchery are working together to enhance the food chain for salmon in the Quillayute river drainage.  The Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey rivers are being enhanced with surplus salmon carcasses.  Hatchery personnel gather the amount of eggs needed for next year. Between 100-200 Coho salmon are collected for the area food banks.  The remaining are near the spawning stage which makes them too old for the area food banks.  These salmon are collected and their tails are removed for identification as hatchery fish.  Volunteers work with the WAshington State Fish and Wildlife hatchery employees to place these fish into the river system.  As these fish decay, they release nutrients which builds up the food chain.  Aquatic insects such as caddis files, stone flies and midges, feed on these Coho salmon carcasses.  The aquatic insects are an importan part of a Coho fry diet.  Salmon have five life stages:  eggs, fry, smolts, adults and carcasses.  So here we have the fifth stage helping to improve the second stage.  As we put these carcasses in streams they deposit marine derived (Pacific Ocean) nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorous.  Juvenile Coho steelhead and cutthroat in small Western Washington streams obtain 25% to 40% of these elements from Coho salmon carcasses.  Besides feeding on the aquatice insects Coho fry have been seed feeding on tgeh carcasses.  An added benefit of these carcasses is the increase in the food chain for wildlife.  Salmon are called a "key stone" species.  They have a positive impact on 138 species of wildlife in WAshington and Oregon.  Washington State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife has released a Technical Report titled, "Pacific Salmon and Wildlife: Ecological Contexts, Relationships and implications for Management (Johnson and O'Neil, 2001)." This report is used as reference for this web page and we highly recommend it for reading.  Go to http://wdfw.wa.gov/recovery.htm

  Phil Borde, a coalition volunteer, harvests a spring Chinook for the local area food banks.

  Coalition volunteers filet salmon for the local food banks.

  Salmon being fileted and bagged for the local food banks.

  The adult trap at the Sol Duc Salmon Hatchery completely  plugged with fall Coho Salmon.

  The tail chopping crew. Cutting off the tail of the fish identifies the carcass as being from the Sol Duc Hatchery.

  Volunteers use private vehicles to travel over 500 miles each year, distrubuting carcasses.

  Salmon Coalition  Volunteers assisting hatchery personnel in netting surplus Coho.

 Salmon carcasses in the river.

  Volunteers helping hatchery manager with a male Coho used for spawning.

  Wa. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife  biologist is taking organ samples on spawning coho to test for disease.

  Volunteers filing salmon carcasses into the North Fork of the Calawah River.