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field trip!
by MaryRose Lovgren
(1) Let’s start with the viewing platform on the east side, where you can walk down and look at the river. “Late in the summer,” Ford describes, “the fish in there are so packed in it almost looks like seaweed in the current. Then you can see them trying to jump over the barrier dam. So every so often, you’ll see one come rocketing out there. It’s amazing how high they can get! Some will jump ten or twelve feet clear out of the water. But they can’t jump high enough to clear the barrier. When we open the ladder up” (September 15th this year), “they’ll start coming up the ladder. And all along the ladder (2) you can see them jumping the boards as they keep climbing higher and higher.” Ford points out this cool fact: the ladder is over a half-mile long, which makes it the longest ladder on the West Coast.
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After traveling up the ladder, the salmon will reach the gathering tank (a rectangular tank or trap), and from there they are moved either by hand or mechanically into one of four round holding tanks (3), where they are held until they are ready to spawn.
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growing up chico magazine
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Once a week, fish from the holding tanks are then forced into the building, and anesthetized with carbon dioxide which slows them down enough to be handled (which is important, as the average size of these fish is 30 pounds). Through the great windows (4), you can see the Fish & Game workers sort the salmon that are ready to spawn by gender. Eggs are released from the females and mixed with “milt” from the males (5), and the miracle of fertilization takes place. Salmon that aren’t ready to spawn are shunted back into the holding tanks, where they fully revive. They are held there until the group ripens. The story ends here for the adult salmon, for once they’ve spawned, they die. At the hatchery, this inevitable death is hastened to make handling them easier. If 100% of the salmon came through the hatchery, the carcasses would have to be released back into the river system as part of nature’s recycling process. But since only 30% are artificially spawned here, they can preserve those fish and have them canned. Working through the Community Action Agency, the fish is then given out to those in need. Whole salmon are also provided to the Native American tribes in the area.
Up to 30,000 adult salmon reach the Hatchery, and from these, 12 to 13 million fertilized eggs may be incubated (6), as Brightwell demonstrates. These eggs are placed in row after row of incubator stacks, where fresh, oxygenated Feather River water can flow through them. The eggs “water harden,” becoming plump and firm. “After around 25-30 days,” Brightwell narrates, “they get through that tender stage and they develop into what we refer to as ‘eyed eggs,’” so-named because you can see the fish’s eyes developing inside. The eggs are now tough enough to handle, and to remove dead eggs that may be harboring fungus, water is sprayed into the troughs. Dead eggs turn white due to a rupturing of the membranes inside, and these can be picked out. “We refer to that as ‘addling’ the eggs,” interjects Brightwell with a twinkle, “because we get them all addled up!” For thirty days after that, they live off the yolk of the egg. Called “alevin,” these larval fish, if fertilized outside of the hatchery, would still be in the gravel of the river’s bed.
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