Whatcom hatchery must move

Associated Press

BELLINGHAM — Kokanee for the sports fishery have been raised for years at a state hatchery on Brannian Creek near Lake Whatcom, an isolated spot where they’re safe from a deadly and highly contagious fish disease.

Now state managers must find a new hatchery site or develop a new program because a fish ladder designed to help endangered wild salmon could allow disease-causing pathogens to reach the Lake Whatcom Hatchery.

The Legislature approved $200,000 last month for the state Fish and Wildlife Department’s search.

Between 12 million and 14 million kokanee, a type of sockeye that lives in fresh water, are raised annually at Lake Whatcom, about five miles southeast of Bellingham. More than half are taken to 70 lakes around the Pacific Northwest for sports fishing.

State fish managers are particularly worried about infectious hematopoeitic necrosis, a disease that could be devastating in a hatchery where fish are in close proximity. The ailment has caused massive fish kills in other hatcheries around the world.

Lake Whatcom is naturally isolated and is believed to be free of the disease and others brought by wide-ranging fish.

The lake is also used as a water reservoir for the city of Bellingham. The city operates a dam on the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River to gather water for passage through a 9 1/2-mile pipeline to Lake Whatcom, said Clare Fogelsong of the city of Bellingham.

That dam had prevented spring chinook and other species from reaching the river’s upper waters, leaving those waters free of fish disease. But within the next two years, the Nooksack Tribe will install a fish ladder to help chinook and other salmon get past the dam and reach higher waters for spawning, said Bob Kelly, natural resources director for the tribe.

Spring chinook, like many other salmon and steelhead, are considered threatened species under federal law.

Once the ladder is built, state fish managers worry that wild salmon will bring disease-causing pathogens to waters above the dam, where they could float down the pipeline into the hatchery area.

Lake Whatcom will be difficult to replace, because few other lakes are as isolated and free of disease, said John Kerwin, hatcheries division manager for the state agency.

Kelly said the ladder will open up 14 miles of new spawning habitat for steelhead as well as chinook. The tribe worked for about a decade to receive state and federal permission to build the ladder, finally winning approval within the past two years, he said.

The tribe still must find $6 million to fund the project.