In this photo taken underwater in 2014, thousands of fall chinook feed at a Mayfield Lake net rearing pen in Silver Creek.
Managers of the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery recently released a report indicating the number of fish smolts they believe they released into the Cowlitz River this summer.
The only problem is that the original number that they came up with was greater than the number of fish they reported putting in the rearing pens in the first place.
While the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife took steps to reconcile the disparate numbers, the discrepancy has once again exposed an apparent blind spot in the fish counting protocol at the hatchery, as well as ongoing issues with the fish counting machine utilized at the facility.
Last summer, a half million summer steelhead smolts came up missing when it was time to release the juvenile fish into the river for their trip out to the ocean. The blame in that case was placed on aggressive bird predation as well as faulty fish counters.
A statement from Tacoma Power, which contracts with the WDFW to run their federally mandated hatchery facilities, noted that extra effort was taken this year to ward off predators in the hatchery pools in order to help offset the losses of 2016. Tacoma Power also noted that the faulty fish counter was recalibrated by its manufacturer this year.
The statement from Tacoma Power noted that over the course of several months last winter the WDFW released an estimated 1,441,000 cutthroat trout, summer-run steelhead and late winter-run steelhead into the hatchery ponds and raceways.
Once those juvenile fish were released into the river though, WDFW staff found that the fish counter had tallied more fish than were originally placed in the ponds. A statement from Tacoma Power noted that, “To account for this inaccuracy, the organizations estimated this year’s releases by applying natural mortality and predation rates.”
According to those manipulated numbers hatchery managers estimate that between 1.2 and 1.4 million smolts were released into the Cowlitz River this summer. The release goal for 2017 was 1,362,500 fish.
Tacoma Power and WDFW have stated their intention to improve the accuracy of their fish counting methods in time for next year’s batch of smolts. Tacoma Power has also budgeted $8 million for improvements to the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery with improvements to the rearing ponds and counter system listed as priorities.
