QUILCENE — Quilcene National Fish Hatchery will salute its 100 years of operation with tours and educational activities Saturday.
The free event, which is open to the public, will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the hatchery two miles south of Quilcene on U.S. Highway 101.
Celebration attendees will be able to tour the hatchery and see inside a state-of-the-art automated fish marking trailer capable of marking more than 8,000 young fish per hour.
They will be offered storytelling, the opportunity to make artistic fish prints using the Japanese art of gyotaku and learn more about Pacific salmon through hands-on activities, as well as learn about the roles of hatchery partners.
Free parking will be located in the town of Quilcene, with free shuttle buses running all day between the hatchery and town.
Only ADA-accessible parking will be allowed at the hatchery.
The Quilcene High School Booster Club and the Quilcene Lions Club will sell food to support community scholarships.
Celebration
“The centennial celebration is an opportunity to honor our history, our partners and tell Quilcene’s story, which is more than just releasing fish and providing fish for catch,” said Ron Wong, manager of the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery.
“There are many partnerships involved in management of the resources and supporting the Hood Canal Management Plan, the Puget Sound Salmon Management Plan and Pacific Salmon Treaty objectives,” he said.
Area tribes, other federal and state fish conservation agencies, and private nonprofit organizations will have booths and activities at the celebration of the hatchery operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Taft president at time
In 1911, when Quilcene National Fish Hatchery first opened its doors, William Howard Taft was president, naval aviation was in its infancy, and a dozen eggs cost 23 cents.
Hatchery practices have evolved from supporting a local chum salmon canning industry in the early 20th century to helping recover imperiled summer chum, Hood Canal winter steelhead and Lake Sammamish kokanee, Wong said.
The hatchery’s keystone program is coho production.
About 1.1 million coho salmon eggs or juvenile fish are propagated each year for tribal, commercial and sport fisheries.
Spring release
Each spring, 400,000 juvenile coho are released into the Quilcene River.
Another 200,000 are transferred to net pens operated by the Skokomish tribe for acclimation and release into Quilcene Bay.
Some 450,000 eggs are transferred each November to the state Department of Fish & Wildlife’s George Adams State Hatchery, where they are incubated and raised as fry, transferred into net pens in Port Gamble Bay and reared by the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe until release in the spring.
The hatchery also participates in the Hood Canal Steelhead Supplementation program to help restore winter-run steelhead in the Skokomish, Duckabush and Dewatto rivers, Wong said.
For more information, visit www.fws.gov/quilcenenfh.