Priest Rapids Hatchery Operations and Maintenance Annual Report: July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015

Priest Rapids Hatchery (PRH) was designed as a mitigation facility for fall Chinook after Priest Rapids and Wanapum Dams were constructed, and is funded by the Grant County Public Utility District (GCPUD) and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the John Day Mitigation (JDM) portion of the production. It has been in continuous operation since September 1963, and is operated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). It is part of the WDFW’s Priest Rapids Hatchery Complex, which also includes the Ringold, Meseberg, Naches and Columbia Basin hatcheries.

The annual release goal for GCPUD in 2015 is 5.6 million sub-yearling smolts (at a target size of 50 fish per pound) or 112,000 pounds. All of the trapping, spawning and rearing takes place at Priest Rapids Hatchery. Beginning in 1992, 1.7 million sub-yearling fall Chinook smolts (50 fish per pound) have also been reared and released at Priest Rapids Hatchery as part of USACE John Day Mitigation. Up to 13.5 million eggs are taken annually to meet all PRH production goals and for other programs, including the JDM 3.5 million sub-yearling smolt release program at Ringold Hatchery.

PRH is staffed with four full-time hatchery specialists, three career-seasonal hatchery technicians (10 months) and four seasonal technicians (4 months). Seasonal staff is utilized during trapping, spawning, and rearing to handle heavy workloads. The 2014-15 production cycle was the last season that the seasonal employees were required to live in the old PRH bunkroom during egg and sac-fry incubation when assigned to emergency standby. This is because of the housing relocation to the nearby Desert Aire residential development of three of the full-time hatchery specialists. This allows them to provide a nearly immediate response (five minute commute) to emergency alarms. Previous housing for the full-time hatchery specialists was located twenty minutes from the hatchery outside the standby response time for incubating eggs and fry.

Trapping of returning fall chinook salmon takes place approximately one mile south of the main facility, and fish are transported by truck to three AHPs and one adult pond is utilized for wild fall chinook which come from the Priest Rapids Dam Off-ladder Adult Fish

Trap (OLAFT) and by volunteer angler broodstock collection. Sorting, surplusing of fish not required for broodstock and spawning of fish selected for broodstock occurs adjacent to the holding ponds, and eggs are transferred by buckets to the incubation room in the main hatchery building. After hatch, fish are transferred by truck to raceways, where they are introduced to feed and raised until marking occurs. Once marking starts, fish are then moved to the five rearing ponds for final rearing and then released in June.