Lake Sammamish kokanee get hatchery boost to keep rare fish population from extinction

Fifty years ago, Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon were so plentiful that their numbers supported a robust recreational lake fishery and painted the spawning streams in a vivid red from their crimson-colored flanks. Kokanee helped form the basis of a vibrant ecosystem that sustained a wide array of other fish and wildlife species.

Since then, the kokanee population has plummeted, and now it is in dire trouble. In 2008 biologists found fewer than 50 adult fish in the few spawning streams that feed into the lake.

In a new effort to stave off the extinction of Lake Sammamish kokanee, biologists are capturing returning adult fish and taking them to a hatchery for spawning. The offspring spend the first few months of their lives in the hatchery, then are released back into the wild.

Incubating kokanee eggs as part of a carefully managed hatchery program increases the likelihood of having more juvenile fish in the Sammamish ecosystem in the years to come.

“Our goal is to stabilize and possibly bolster the abundance of kokanee spawning in Lake Sammamish’s tributaries until their habitat is restored and these fish can increase in numbers without the need for hatchery supplementation,” said Chad Jackson, fishery biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Jackson added that only a portion of the total spawning run is collected for the supplementation program.  “We are being very careful to make sure that sufficient numbers of kokanee are spawning naturally,” he said.

“Our long-term goal is to have a viable, self-sustaining and fishable population – one that doesn’t need the support of a hatchery,” said Hans Berge, an ecologist with King County’s Water and Land Resources Division.

Maintaining a naturally spawning population ensures the watershed receives the nutritional benefits of spawned-out salmon, including nutrients for fish and wildlife, as well as vegetation, Berge said, and it avoids the risks that occur when salmon are spawned and reared in hatcheries.

Like other salmon, kokanee die after they’ve finished spawning. Their decomposing bodies provide food for a myriad of life, ranging from insects to other fish, birds and mammals.

"I have lived along side a Lake Sammamish kokanee spawning stream, Ebright Creek, since the early 1970s and knew many of the old-timers around here, who told great stories of seeing lots of kokanee in our creeks, and fishing for them in the lake too,” said Wally Pereyra, a longtime resident of the Sammamish watershed.

“I've seen fewer and fewer kokanee in my creek over the years – some years I've seen just a few fish. I’ve also witnessed increased flooding in the creek in response to runoff from development in the Sammamish watershed.

“The new hatchery program is a step in the right direction, but also we need to protect and restore good habitat and control water runoff which can scour spawning streams if we are going to bring these fish back from the brink," Pereyra said.

Kokanee are the landlocked version of sockeye salmon. They spend their entire lives in freshwater. Most adult kokanee will migrate from the lake into small streams to spawn, while a smaller number of adult fish will spawn along the lake’s shoreline – particularly in areas where rain-fed springs are present.

The hatchery program is one element of a broader strategy to return the population to robust health. The strategy stresses the near-term value of a hatchery program and the longer term importance of protecting and restoring kokanee habitat.

The strategy is being advanced by the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group, whose membership includes King County, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Trout Unlimited, the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond and Sammamish, Save Lake Sammamish, other partners and residents of the watershed.

Biologists will continue their search for additional returning kokanee through mid-December. Their work is being funded in part through contributions from USFWS.

The investigation into the causes for the kokanee decline is ongoing. Some potential suspects range from degraded habitat conditions including changes in stream flow patterns – both due to land development and loss of native vegetation. Climate change, water quality, and predation in the lake are also potential suspects.

Habitat improvements are being made in some of the major kokanee spawning streams, including daylighting Zaccuse and George Davis creeks in Sammamish, improving fish passage in Lewis Creek in Issaquah, while restoring habitat along King County’s East Lake Sammamish Trail.

The work group is supporting additional actions including

• A tagging study to learn more about how  kokanee, their predators, and their prey use the lake habitat, supported by an Adopt-a-Kokanee program at Trout Unlimited
• Prioritization and implementation of additional habitat projects that would benefit kokanee and support Chinook salmon, which are already listed under the Endangered Species Act
• The development and distribution of an educational brochure to encourage actions that will conserve kokanee; and
• Testing at the Issaquah Hatchery to assess its potential as the long term home of the supplementation program

The work group is taking action while awaiting word from the USFWS on a petition to protect Lake Sammamish kokanee with a listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. An ESA listing would require development of a recovery plan and designation of critical habitat, and would put in place penalties for harming the fish or damaging habitat.

Related information

Salmon and Trout Topics

Sammamish Watershed

King county Water and Land Resources