The spawning of adult fish occurs every week beginning in October and ending in early February. Adult coho salmon are the first fish to be spawned while in November, December, and January the hatchery is busy with returning adult steelhead. Chum and Fall Chinook salmon are generally spawned in late October through early November. Following fertilization green eggs are transferred to incubation trays where they develop undisturbed until they become "eyed" eggs. At this point the eggs are then "shocked" and then bad eggs are removed either by hand or using electonic egg pickers. Viable eyed eggs are then placed into incubation trays until they develop into sac fry. Once they absorb their yolk sacs they are moved to raceways where then begin feeding on commercial fish feed. The feed is a special diet full of vitamins and nutrients. Each year the nearly 1.5 million chum salmon fry are released in April at two inches while up to 600,000 Fall Chinook salmon are released in July at three inches. In addition, coho salmon and steelhead trout are reared for sixteen months and released in April and May at six and eight inches respectively. Below are pictures from spawning, to fertilization, to "shocking",to egg inventory and incubation.
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