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ROWDY CREEK FISH HATCHERY
Smith
River, CA.
January 2010
A RECORD
CHINOOK SALMON RUN!
The
unpredictability of returning runs of adult Chinook salmon afforded Rowdy Creek
Fish Hatchery a very pleasant surprise this year. The salmon run for this
season has broken every past hatchery record.
During
the last three seasons, the returning runs have been far less than spectacular,
to say the least. With a combined
total of only 684 Chinook, for these past three years, the hatchery staff
{with fingers crossed} hoped for a modestly increased return run for this
2009/2010 season. Then, on November 18th,
after two days of precipitation, the SALMON ARRIVED!
Rowdy
Creek was literally swarming with Chinook salmon. It was more fish than hatchery manager,
Andrew Van Scoyk had seen during the nearly twenty years he has been at Rowdy
Creek Fish Hatchery. In fact, one of the
early days during the run, a total number of recorded salmon reached 302. That one-day total set a new hatchery
record – out numbering yearly totals for sixteen of the hatchery’s last
thirty years.
However,
that record lasted for only four days.
On November 22nd, 379 Chinook were recorded and on November
27th, the hatchery recorded 386 salmon. The returning adult Chinook salmon run
continued into the middle of January, 2010 – producing a grand total of 2,775
salmon during the run. Once again,
another record was shattered as the previous record had been a total of 1,186
adults in 1997.
2009/2010: Adult Chinook salmon returns at Rowdy Creek
Fish Hatchery
Males Jacks Females Females spawned
1,046 577 1,152 37
This
year’s Chinook run has brought with it some mighty sore arms and backs, but you
might call it “The agony of success”.
However, we are not complaining, it truly beats the alternatives.
It
is anyone’s guess whether or not future seasons will be as prolific as this
season has been. The excellent return of
Jack salmon bodes well for the future; yet, we have learned from experience
that Chinook salmon can be extremely hard to predict.
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