Bald eagles are what initially brought me to the Chilkat River near Haines, Alaska. While I continue make the eagles an important part of my coverage, I have become interested in issues related to the eagles.
For example, one of the questions I set out to explore is why the eagles come to the Chilkat Valley. In previous posts and images, I have talked about the groundwater upwellings that keep a stretch of the Chilkat River at the Tsirku River alluvial fan from freezing (you can see aerial photos of the Tsirku River alluvial fan at the Chilkat River here and here). This unique geological and hydrological feature, combined with a late salmon run, are why the eagles congregate. Without the salmon, the eagles would have no incentive to visit the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in the numbers they do. Chilkat River and Klehini River chum salmon are the primary food source for this gathering of eagles; which is among the largest gatherings of bald eagles in the world.
So, on my visits to the Chilkat Valley this year, I focused my efforts on salmon, specifically chum salmon. After initial inquiries about when best to return to the Chilkat Valley, I determined that returning in September would ensure that I was there for the height of the fall chum salmon run. I felt that Herman Creek, a tributary of the Klehini River which flows into the Chilkat River would be a good spot to photograph the run.
Male chum salmon return to Herman Creek to spawn with female chum salmon during the fall chum salmon run. The chum salmon return to freshwater Herman Creek, tributary of the Klehini River after living three to five years in the saltwater ocean.
The spectacle of seeing the salmon travel up the creek was not what I expected. The chum salmon noisily made their way up the creek in bursts of energy. At times, the sound of all the splashing, as they made their way upstream, reminded me of the sounds of a frantic bird flapping its wings. Their olive green with purple and dark green stripe spawning colors are different from the bright red spawning colors of sockeye salmon.
Spawning only once, chum salmon die approximately two weeks after they spawn. During that period after spawning as they await their death, the salmon take on a look not unlike you would expect from a zombie movie. Their skin looks rotten, tattered, even falling off. In the case of the above photo, a male salmon (left) exhibits injuries that were possibly inflicted by a bear hoping to make a meal of the fish. The salmon at the right is a female chum salmon. Note the difference in the teeth and mouths of the different sexes.
Photographing the salmon proved to be more difficult than I imagined. First, there was the bone-chilling 38°F water. Sitting perfectly still for extended periods in water this cold with your lower body and arms immersed holding the camera underwater is physically challenging. I used a combination of extra thick neoprene waders, and commercial fisherman’s gloves that covered most of my arms. Underneath all that I had multiple layers of long underwear and fleece. Even with all that clothing, I felt frozen. Second, salmon, like any wild critter, are easily spooked. For all I know, perhaps they saw me as a small, hungry grizzly bear.
The personal highlight of photographing the salmon occurred when I was standing in the water perfectly still. An 18 to 20-inch salmon cautiously approached me, stopped, and then gently passed between my open legs. You can’t get much closer to wildlife than that.
Assisting mother nature with the spawning process
Coming in September during the chum run also allowed me to photograph the wildstock artificial spawning efforts by the The Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, Inc. (NSRAA).
NSRAA, a regional private nonprofit hatchery association maintains three chum salmon spawning channels near Haines, Alaska; two at Herman Creek and one at the Chilkat River. They also maintain incubation boxes at Herman Creek, 31-mile Haines Highway and 17-mile Haines Highway.
NSRAA built the channels to collect wild broodstock by harvesting spawning female and male salmon for their roe (eggs) and milt (semen) to artificially spawn wild chum salmon. The roe is fertilized with milt and placed in stream-side incubation boxes.
I met up with NSRAA fish technicians David Campbell and Dylan Burbank to observe the artificial spawning process. First, Campbell and Burbank constructed an artificial weir on the spawning channel of Herman Creek which salmon could enter but not escape. The weir is protected by an electric fence and a motion-detection alarm that blasts a deafening shrill should bears looking for an easy meal approach.
Fish trapped between the weir structure are rounded up by Campbell and Burbank using a big net or by simply grabbing by hand from a trap box that fish could swim into if they felt so inclined. It’s hard work lugging the big net with dozens of fish, each weighing approximately 11 to 15 pounds. It is just as hard to later toss each individual fish into a sorting pile (male vs. female) after the fish has been killed with a blow to the head with a small aluminum bat. The sharp canine-like teeth cut easily cut through the fish technician’s thick vinyl gloves.
Once sorted, Campbell and Burbank begin the process of removing the roe (eggs) from the females by slicing the egg sac along the bottom of the salmon with a ring-like short curved blade. The precious roe is caught with an ordinary kitchen strainer. Each female might contain as many as 4,000 eggs but typically the range is 2,400 to 3,100 eggs.
The roe is carefully inspected for bad eggs.
Example of good chum salmon eggs
Example of a bad chum salmon egg. Bad eggs create mold and fungus in the incubation box, killing off good eggs.
Once the roe has been gathered and placed in kitchen plastic storage bags, the process of gathering the milt from the males begins.
Milt is gathered in small plastic bags. The milt is extracted by pressing and sliding a hand across the bottom of the male salmon. Let me just say that careful aim is needed in this step of the process.
Campbell (left) and Burbank carry coolers of roe and milt collected from chum salmon captured on the man-made spawning channel of Herman Creek. The roe and milt will be taken to the stream-side incubation boxes on Herman Creek and the Klehini River.
David Campbell (left) and Dylan Burbank measure and record the weight of eggs collected from chum salmon captured at the man-made spawning channels at Herman Creek. Weighing the eggs is the way the technicians determine how many eggs are placed in the incubation boxes. In the spring when the boxes are cleaned out, dead eggs are weighed. This provides a count of fish that became fry.
After weighing, the eggs are fertilized with the milt, and some water from Herman Creek.
The mixture is very gently mixed, then rinsed with stream water.
Campbell very gently pours the fertilized eggs into the incubation box.
In 2014, 2.4 million eggs were seeded into incubation boxes on the Klehini River (Herman Creek and at 31-mile Haines Highway). The 2013 incubation box survival rate at the Herman Creek incubation site was roughly 90%. Without the artificial spawning, natural survival is said to be only 10%. Over on the Chilkat River, 1.2 million eggs were seeded. In 2013, the Chilkat River incubation site had a 98% survival rate. The incubation process is 100% natural. Fry are not fed. Water from Herman Creek flows continuously through the incubation boxes. Once the fry are big enough, the fish leave the incubation boxes on their own through the water discharge pipe.
Throughout the process Campbell and Burbank keep one eye on their surroundings for grizzly bears who also frequent the same stream during the salmon run. A silver shotgun is always within each reach. The day before I met them, Campbell and Burbank had a large grizzly bear charge their pickup truck as they pulled up. They had come between a sow and her cubs who were likely attracted to the dead and dying salmon along the spawning channels. A frenzied reversal of the truck deescalated the situation.
NSRAA has maintained a presence in the Chilkat Valley since 1984 with wildstock enhancement projects ranging from sockeye lake stocking, chum and sockeye streamed incubation, and spawning channel construction. NSRAA’s current focus is on the four chum salmon spawning channels and three chum salmon stream incubation sites.
Based in Sitka, Alaska, NSRAA conducts salmon enhancement projects in the Chilkat Valley and other sites in northern southeast Alaska. It is funded through a salmon enhancement tax (of three percent) and cost-recovery income. NSRAA also produces sockeye, chinook, and coho salmon. In 2014, it is estimated that NSRAA’s contributions to the commercial salmon harvest was $8.27 million, or about 6.6% of the total $126 million Southeast Alaska commercial salmon harvest.
UPDATE: The March 26, 2015 edition of the Chilkat Valley News reports that NSRAA has decided to suspend their incubation box projects in the Haines area, including those at Herman Creek. NSRAA’s decision is based on a low return on investment for the number of fish that the project produced. Building additional chum salmon spawning channels for the area in the future is being considered.
UPDATE: The September 3, 2015 edition of the Chilkat Valley News reports that NSRAA has lengthened the two spawning channels at Herman Creek by a third. The project was funded with a state Department of Commerce grant.
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