System malfunction leads to deaths of 1 million salmon at Skagit County hatchery

BURLINGTON, Wash. — More than 1 million young Chinook salmon died following a major mechanical failure at a hatchery in Skagit County.

The incident happened Monday at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)’s Samish Hatchery.

According to the WDFW, flooding from the nearby Samish River caused clogging to a water intake screen at the facility. As a result, fresh water was continually depleted for several hours overnight, leading to the deaths of a million salmon fry in one of the facility's holding ponds.

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Fish and wildlife workers told KOMO News an alarm should have alerted the hatchery's staff about dangerously low water levels in that particular pond, but that electrical issues caused the overall warning system to malfunction. As a result, employees did not discover the problem for several hours, when more than a million fish had already died.

WDFW employees said that the young salmon were being raised to support prey availability for southern resident killer whales as well as tribal and recreational salmon fisheries in the north Sound.

"While the loss of these Chinook is very unfortunate, and steps will be taken to prevent further incidents, WDFW does not expect there will be significant negative impacts to orcas, Puget Sound salmon fisheries, or future hatchery operations from this loss of fry as the Samish Hatchery has seen surplus returns of Chinook in recent years," the WDFW said in a statement.

The young Chinook were staged in the holding pond for mass marking, or clipping their adipose fins, before being released into the Samish River in the coming weeks. The surviving fry will be clipped and released along with the young Chinook salmon held in other ponds at the Samish Hatchery that were not affected by Monday’s incident.