The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-05-09
BONNEVILLE HATCHERY
INTERESTS VISITORS

One Of the most interesting sights
between here and Portland on the o.
w. K. & N. line is the state hatchery
al Bonneville. A number of Hood
River people have recently visited the
hatchery. which now has at its pools
several million trout for distribution
this summer.
The following article from the Ore
gonian deals more particularly with
the process Of Matching salmon eggs at
Bonneville.
improvements and additions re-
Gently completed make Oregon's cen
trail state hatchery at Bonneville the
largest in the world. A total of l5,-
600. 900 salmon and trout eggs were
taken care of at the hatchery IN 1911.
Twenty million eggs will be hatched
and reared during 1912, and the final
total capacity of the plant, when nurs-
cry ponds now projected are COM
pleted, will be IL, 600. 600.
"The former capacity Of the hatch
cry was but 5000, 600 eggs. Acting
under instructions from the state board
Of fish and game commissioners, Mas
ter Fish Warden Clanton had con-
structed flume which has a capacity
Of $4,000 gallons per minute, or the
minimum flow Of Tanner creek during
the summer months. This is the
stream which supplies the hatchery
with water from quarter of mile
up the creek to near the hatchery
buildings, where il is liberated into a
series Of ponds. flowing from one to
| the other and forming a series of cas-
cades. In these ponds the young fish
are nursed and fed from the time they
are old enough TO be removed from the
Matching troughs until they are liber-
ated.
"The Bonneville hatchery was estab-
| ished in September, 1903, with II. G.
| McAllster as master fish warden and
! j. w. Berrian as uperintendent. +.
| G.. Greenman, the present superinten-
dent, who was then inspector of hatch
cries, personally delivered the first lot
OF eggs at the hatchery. They were
taken ten days before the plant was
ready for operation, and it was there
| fore necessary to hold them in cold
storage at the Union depot at Portland
for that length of time. They had been
| brought from the Salmon river racks.
Though the Bonneville hatchery is
the principal one at present, 1t was
not the first one established in the
state. The first one was built in the
early sos near the mouth of the Clack-
amas river, and was operated jointly
for few years by the state and gov
eminent. 1t was finally abandoned
and the lower river cannerymen erect
| ed hatchery on the headwaters of the
same stream.
"The main building of the central
hatchery is 240 feet in length 10y So
feet in width. In addition to the office
and exhibit rooms, il contains 240 l6-
| foot tr0ughs with capacity of lSO, 600
| eggs each, or total of Al ,000 600.
This building and the Matching troughs
are supplied with a pipeline flowing
1000 gallons per minute.
"No eggs are taken at this hi tch-
rey. They are secured from the gov
renment and from some of the collect
ing stations in different parts of the
state. At these stations the streams
are racked and the fish held until
ripe The salmon are then taken
from the water and killed. Their tails
are cut off and the fish allowed to bleed
for five or ten minutes, when their
bellies are split open with "a sharp
knife and the eggs are allowed to drop
into spawning pans. They are then
| fertilized by the male fish which are
kept in pens handy. The milk is
washed off the eggs taken to the
hatchery. where they are sorted with
nippers, until the third day, after
which they are allowed to rest for ten
days or two weeks. The eggs are then
sorted daily and all the dead ones re-
moved to prevent the starting of
| fungus growth on the live eggs.
During the early stages, the fish are
confined in great numbers in very
small spaces, but as they grow they
are thinned out and the longer they
are kept the greater space required to
handle them. 1t is the plan Of the
present administration to hold them un-
til they are about a year old, when
they are marked and liberated.
The present system of marking is to
clip aV-shaped piece from the gill COW
er. At first glance it will probably
seem like an impossible task to under
take the marking of few million fish
of the lingering stage. According to
Superintendent Greenman, however,
one man can, with the use of an in
strument invented by Master Fish
Warden Clanton, mark about 1000 fish
in day. The purpose of the marking
is to determine more or less accurately
the percentage of fish which are per-
mitted to come to maturity and return
to the stream in which they have been
liberated With the exception of
Japan, Oregon is the only place in the
world where gill marking is still en-
ployed. The government Inserts sill
YER wire in one of the fins whereas
formerly it was the custom to cut off
the adipose fin. II was found, how
ever. that this fin often grows out and
in cutting il off there is also danger of
killing the fish.
About 10000 salmon fry thus marked
were liberated from the bonneville
hatchery in September. Six weeks
after Master Fish Warden Canton
made a cruise down the Columbia river
and had no trouble in finding the
marked fish in practically every eddy
along the stream, down as far as the
mouth of the Willamette.
The salmon are supposed to attain
maturity at the age of four years when
they return to the rivers to spawn.
With the exception of the steelhead,
which is generally conceded to be a
trout, the salmon die after they have
spawned Making no effort to return
to the sea or to take food they gradu-
ally die Of starvation or wear them
selves out on the shadows of the
stream headwaters. The sleelhead re-
turns to the sea, however, when he is
able and comes back to spawn in sue.
ceedlng years So far as is known,
the oldest steelhead ever taken was
seven years old. This is determined
by counting the rays or lines on the
fins, by the aid of microscope, but
as this was but recently discovered, the
extent of the observations is.very lin.