PORT ANGELES — A water pump malfunction at the Lower Elwha Klallam tribal fish hatchery in late January led to the death of 70 percent of the facility’s newly hatched coho salmon.

The failure occurred either early on the morning of Jan. 30 or late the night before but wasn’t detected until 600,000 of 850,000 coho alevin were dead.

Fish in the alevin stage have freshly emerged from their egg. At hatcheries, they remain in incubation trays while feeding from their yolk sacks, which hang attached to the underside of their bodies and provide vital nutrients until absorbed.

Details of the pump failure came to light Friday morning in an interview with hatchery fish manager Doug Morrill.

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The rest of the story appears in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News.