Salmon Spawn Goal Reached
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| Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota, near Garrison Dam (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Fisheries
crews have completed their annual salmon spawning operation on the
Missouri River System after collecting roughly 1.3 million eggs.
Dave
Fryda, North Dakota Game and Fish Department Missouri River System
supervisor, said about two thirds of the eggs came from Lake Sakakawea
and the remainder from the Missouri River below Garrison Dam.
The
average size of Lake Sakakawea females was 8.5 pounds, almost 3 pounds
larger than 2013 and among the highest weights documented since the
inception of the salmon program. The Missouri River females, which are
typically larger than the lake fish, averaged 10.4 pounds.
“The
2014 salmon spawning run was successful in obtaining enough eggs to
meet next year’s stocking goals.” Fryda said. “However, contrary to
recent years, we might not be able to provide excess eggs to Montana and
South Dakota to meet their egg goals.”
Fryda
said the number of salmon in the 2014 spawning run was greatly reduced
throughout the Missouri River reservoirs due to the lingering effects of
the 2011 flood. “Salmon stocked during the 2011 flood would have been a
major component of this year’s spawning run,” he said. “Unfortunately,
large numbers of juvenile and adult salmon were entrained through the
dams during the record flows of 2011.”
Plans
for 2015 are to stock Lake Sakakawea with 400,000 salmon, with none
scheduled for the river below Garrison Dam, Fryda said.
Chinook
salmon begin their spawning run in October. Since salmon cannot
naturally reproduce in North Dakota, Game and Fish Department and
Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery personnel collect eggs and transport
them to the hatchery.
Once the eggs hatch, young salmon spend several months in the hatchery before being stocked in Lake Sakakawea.
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