Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project

This past fall has been an interesting and challenging time as the new Hatchery Manger of the Kingfisher Flat Hatchery. On August 8th a wonderful retirement party was held to honor a great man and MBSTP Hatchery Manger for 27 years, Dave Streig, who retired on August 14th just days after the Lockheed Fire ignited the hills above the hatchery on August 12th. The fire resulted in the whole Swanton Area being evacuated for several weeks.

Normally, I would have been cut off from access to the hatchery and the fish while a fire of this magnitude raged through the canyons, during which time the Coho and Steelhead at the hatchery could have possibly perished. Instead, 3 days before becoming the new hatchery manager, I was escorted into the hatchery by another amazing man, CDF Battalion Chief, Matt McCaslin. With Matt’s help I was allowed to spend 1 hour a day to feed and care for the fish. Without Matt’s courageous effort, I believe we would have lost the Kingfisher Flat Hatchery and the fish in the Fire.

However, that is not what happened and the fish all survived, we did not loose a single fish as a result of the fire. Working at the hatchery during the first few weeks in all the smoke and ash made it difficult to breath at times. Flames blazed all around me while I tried to care for the fish as quickly as I could. In the end , the hatchery building was saved but our Berry Creek water supply line was destroyed and will need to be repaired before the incubation of next spring’s salmon and trout eggs begin. The watershed above the hatchery was severely burned and geologists have predicted 3 to 9 foot mud and debris flows in Big Creek, the main water supply for the hatchery.

One large storm has already hit us and caused some damage to the generator building when a large alder tree fell on it, but no mud flows yet. Just prior to the big storm on October 12, heavy flooding was predicted for the Big Creek water shed, triggering a decision to move our precious Coho salmon out of harms way. As a result they were relocated to the Santa Cruz NOAA lab for the winter.

Our inventory of production fish on hand when the Lockheed fire began was as follows:

• San Lorenzo Steelhead – 30,322
• Scott Creek Steelhead – 5,800
• Scott Creek Coho juveniles – 1,708

All the juvenile Coho were relocated to NOAA as well as the Coho Captive Brood-stock (CBS) Adults list here:

• 2007 Brood-year Coho CBS – 35
• 2008 Brood-year Coho CBS – 43

I currently have fish to care for in 2 locations and my time is now split 50% between the hatchery and the NOAA lab in order to care for the fish in both locations. This leaves me very little time to do anything except feed fish and clean tanks. MBSTP, NOAA and CDFG have decided that most of the production steelhead must be released early because the risk of losing them to an extreme storm event at the hatchery is too great. Some of the Scott Creek Steelhead and Coho have been released early to get them into the creek before the winter storms begin.

So far the following early releases have been completed:

• 700 Scott Creek Coho were planted in San Vicente Creek on October 29, 2009
• 2,757 Scott Creek Steelhead were planted into Scott Creek on December 3, 2009

Of the 2,757 Scott Creek steelhead released, 1,000 fish were PIT tagged by NOAA Fisheries staff on November 20th to track their stream migration patterns. Currently the plan is to release 25,000 of the San Lorenzo Steelhead during December. 5,000 San Lorenzo Steelhead and 2,500 Scott Creek Steelhead will remain at the hatchery over the winter and will be planted in this coming spring if they survive the storms predicted for December thru March, 2010.

We just completed another successful Fin Clip with the help of 50 + volunteers and the NOAA Fisheries crew led by Dr. Sean Hayes. Approximately 30,000 young San Lorenzo steelhead are now ready to be released back into the San Lorenzo River to complete their life cycle. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with the Hatchery or serving on the Board of Directors, please contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details. There are many jobs to do and all skill levels are welcome.

I currently need help during the week at the hatchery mainly feeding the fish and performing daily routine work, so if you are interested please contact Carla Moss, 831-458-3095.

Looking forward to hearing from you!