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Dead salmon could revive aging hatchery By MARK FREEMAN Community efforts to keep the aging Butte Falls Hatchery from retirement this summer could find a morbid, yet powerful, ally in the pails of dead salmon at nearby Cole Rivers Hatchery. More than 1.4 million infant Rogue River spring chinook salmon suffocated last week during failures of Cole Rivers' water pump and alarm systems. But their deaths could breathe another year or two of life back into the nearby mountain hatchery at Butte Falls. Biologists are looking for ways to lessen the impact on Rogue spring chinook fishing in 2003, the year when most of the dead salmon were to return as adults. By pampering the 420,000 infant chinook that didn't die in last week's accident, biologists can cross their fingers and hope to make up half the losses. But finding ways to replace some of the remaining half of the dead salmon is where the Butte Falls Hatchery comes into play. By raising extra infant spring chinook next year, then sending the fish down the Rogue to sea earlier than usual, biologists can actually entice a good percentage of these fish to return as adults in 2003 -- instead of 2004, when they would normally return to the Rogue. The replacement salmon would be only 3 years old and about 12 pounds -- smaller than the 4-year-old 20-pounders born and released from the hatchery this year. "For someone wanting to catch chinook salmon," research biologist Tom Satterthwaite says, "those 12-pounders are certainly better than nothing." Yet before biologists like Satterthwaite can start this unique band-aid approach, two things must materialize: money, and space at Cole Rivers Hatchery. The money could come in the form of one-time payments from state and federal sources that have direct interest in seeing the Rogue's hatchery-dominated spring chinook fishery be successful in 2003. And some of the space at Cole Rivers could come from, of all places, re-opening the Butte Falls Hatchery next year. This year's plan to phase out year-round fish production at Butte Falls Hatchery has left the nearby Cole Rivers Hatchery to rear the 330,000 infant salmon historically raised in Butte Falls for release in the Coquille, Coos and Umpqua river systems. Putting those fish back at Butte Falls next year would free up enough room at Cole Rivers Hatchery to grow about 300,000 of the extra infant salmon for release next year, Cole Rivers hatchery Foreman Matt Frank says. "There still is going to be a noticeable impact of not having those fish there," Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Mike Evenson says. "But raising more fish next year, and releasing them earlier (than normal) gives us our greatest potential. It seems reasonable to me." The plan is unique, untested and theoretical. Yet it intrigues ODFW officials enough to start crunching the numbers and gauge its feasibility -- steps that should please those trying to keep Butte Falls Hatchery alive. "I, personally, think that's a semi-valid argument," says Bob Mullen, supervisor of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Southwest Region. "It might just delay the inevitable of Butte Falls shutting down again," Mullen says. "But I don't know. I want to talk to some people about it." Such talk could get serious later this month, when Mullen, Satterthwaite and other top ODFW biologists meet to determine how best to make up for the lost Cole Rivers Hatchery chinook. "It's a complicated deal," Mullen says. "We'll look at it, but I don't know if we can pull it off." The need to make up for the fish loss at Cole Rivers is obvious -- hatchery fish are raised and released specifically to be caught by sport and commercial interests. The impacts are even more dramatic when you consider the Rogue's wild spring chinook represent just one in four fish to cross Gold Ray Dam. That makes losing 77 percent of this year's spring chinook releases from Cole Rivers that much more dramatic. Cole Rivers Hatchery normally releases about 1.62 million spring chinook smolts into the Rogue annually. Based on computer formulas that account for ocean survival and catch rates, reducing the releases by 1.4 million would roughly mean 6,000 fewer 20-pound spring chinook entering the Rogue in 2003, Satterthwaite says. Of those, about 1,400 likely would have been caught by anglers. To recoup some of those lost fish, the best way likely is to raise extra fish next year, grow them as big as possible, then in mid-summer release those fish as smolts heading to sea. Normal spring chinook smolt releases are August through October, and those fish tend to return primarily as 4-year-old, 20-pound fish. But past hatchery research indicates that releasing those fish earlier would make them more likely to mature as 3-year-old, 12-pound fish and return to the river a full year earlier than if those smolts were released in October. It will take lots of computer modeling and formula work to figure out exactly if this strategy would work, how many extra fish are needed, when to release those fish -- even before costs are determined. "It can be done, but it's tough to get at without banging out the numbers," Satterthwaite says. "The jury is not out on these questions. There are some serious assessments to do. "But one thing's sure, it will take a lot of (extra) fish," he says. The numbers can then be taken to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Oregon Legislature's Emergency Board, to ask for money to do it. The Corps, which will save about $100,000 from having to feed the dead fish at Cole Rivers this year, could use that money to feed and raise next year's excess fish -- if room at the hatchery is made. One way to make some of that room is to pull Butte Falls Hatchery out of mothballs next year. It likely would cost about $150,000 to re-open Butte Falls Hatchery for another year. But that's a defensible cost, when you consider how important the Rogue spring chinook fishing season is to the basin's economy. A 1992 ODFW survey concluded that spring chinook fishing in the Rogue generates $2.6 million in business, which includes tourists who spend $210 per day. If the fish go away, so will the fishing tourists. To keep the fishing public happy, biologists need to find a way to add those catchable fish back into the river in 2003. "(Legislators) might see that as a one-year deal, not committing to Butte Falls forever," Mullen says. "They might go along with it." If not, the 2003 Rogue spring chinook season could be grim. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA