"In just four years of operation, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ Clarks Creek Hatchery is halfway to its goal of collecting 2 million chinook salmon eggs every year.

Staff at the four-year-old hatchery, collected more than 1 million eggs from returning chinook this fall.

Here’s a look at the operation:

Where: On Clarks Creek about one mile upstream from where it flows into the Puyallup River.

Began operation: April 2004.

Original cost: $2.5 million.

Eggs: In the hatchery’s first year of operation, staff used about 100,000 eggs to begin raising young chinook. This year, hatchery staff collected more than 1 million eggs. The goal, said Blake Smith, enhancement program manager for the tribe, is to collect 2 million eggs each year.

Chinook return: This was the first year the staff has seen a complete return of all the age classes. The oldest fish were 5 years old, part of the group first released from the hatchery.

“It’s great to see. They’re getting through all the fisheries between Alaska and the Puyallup River before they come home,” said Chris Phinney, harvest management biologist for the tribe."

Get the Story:
Puyallup tribal hatchery halfway to goal (The Tacoma News-Tribune 11/20)