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Coleman National Fish Hatchery
Text by CNFH.
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Coleman
National Fish Hatchery began operations in 1943. The Station property consists
of 74.5 acres in fee title and 62.9 acres in easements for fish culture
purposes. There are five water rights with priority dates from 1950 to 1965
totaling 122 cubic feet per second. Since 1987 the Station has received
project power from the Bureau of Reclamation. The Station's electrical use
exceeds 3 million kilowatt hours annually and the cost would exceed $250,000
if purchased from PG&E.
Coleman NFH currently propagates steelhead trout and three of the four runs of chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River. |
The late run spawning season begins in late December and continues through March. The past five years the Station has handled an average of 700 adults comprised of 322 females, 348 males and 30 jacks. The average take was 1,038,158 eggs. The egg survival to eyeup has been 82% and from eyeup to release 86%. Production has averaged 731,909 sub yearlings. The sub yearlings have been released from late November through January, ranging in size from 120mm in November to 132mm in January. The Station goal is 1 million sub yearlings at 130mm. The target date for release is mid-January, but disease problems have dictated early releases. Approximately 70% of the adults are captured at the Keswick Fish Trap and 30% from Battle Creek. The progeny from the Keswick adults are released below Red Bluff Diversion Dam if the gates are down or into the upper Sacramento River if the gates are out. The progeny of the Battle Creek adults are released into Battle Creek. This ratio was agreed upon with the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and is designed to both increase the survival to the ocean and ensure upriver returns. The average gain in weight of these fish is 29,284 pounds, requiring 48,369 pounds of feed costing $20,769.67 at today's prices. The average conversion rate is 1.65 with an average growth rate of .470mm per month.
The steelhead spawning season begins in late December and continues through March. The past five years the Station has handled an average of 1,165 adults comprised of 683 females and 482 males. The average take was 1,576,230 eggs. The egg survival to eyeup has been 83% and from eyeup to release 56%. Production has averaged 87,365 fingerlings (78 to 158mm) and 642,718 yearlings. The fingerlings were released in June through october and the yearlings averaging 199mm have been released in January and February. The Station goal is 1,000,000 at 229mm. one half of the smolts are released into Battle Creek and one half are released below Red Bluff Diversion Dam if the gates are down or in the upper Sacramento River if the gates are out. This ratio was agreed upon with the California Department of Fish and Game and is designed to both increase the survival to the ocean and ensure upriver returns. The fingerlings are released at various locations selected by CDFG. The average gain in weight of these fish is 106,104 pounds requiring 130,933 pounds of feed costing $49,754.34 at today's prices. The average conversion rate is 1.23 with and average growth rate of .716mm per month. The adults used for broodstock are known as "sea run trout" since 1987. For three years all adults were scale sampled and only the progeny of certified steelhead were kept for rearing. Since the data gathered indicates that 79% of the fish greater than 540mm in length are known steelhead, all those fish below this size will not be spawned and will be returned to the upper Sacramento River.
The winter chinook propagation program is largely experimental at this stage. Because the adults are available for capture from January through April and spawn from late May through July, holding them is a difficult process. Restricted adult take (20 fish for broodyear 1990), variable maturation time and genetic considerations further complicate these activities.
Spawning protocol includes rearing fish representing the entire run and, when feasible, using a one male to one female spawning ratio to reduce genetic impacts. All eggs are treated with iodophor while water hardening and held in treated water during incubation to reduce infection.
The contribution (>f the hatchery product has received little attention with the exception of information gleaned from fall chinook tagging studies conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game. Current and anticipated future tagging studies should begin to provide this information.
The data for the fall chinook is based on ocean catch, adults counted over Red Bluff Diversion Dam, returns to Battle Creek and returns to the hatchery. No data is available for in-river sport harvest. The data available indicates that the contribution to the ocean fishery has ranged from a low of about 20,000 to a high of about 140,000 from 1970 through 1985 with a significant increase since 1979. The number of adults returning to Battle Creek have also increased from 1979 to 1989. Comparing the Battle Creek returns with the upper Sacramento River adults returns indicate an increase in the ratio from 5% to 15% in the 1970's to 20% to 40% in the 1980's. This means that the hatchery contribution is increasing while the contribution of the natural spawning is either relatively stable or decreasing.
There is no reliable data from which to determine hatchery contribution of the late fall chinook program to the ocean fisheries.
The only available data on steelhead trout is hatchery returns. This data indicates a widely fluctuating pattern from 1970 through 1989. This is further compounded by the closure of Battle Creek to fishing in 1987 and size and catch restrictions in the Sacramento River.
Ambient water temperatures are too high in the late spring and summer for holding adult winter chinook salmon and incubation of their eggs. Control of this problem is provided by five water chillers with a combined capacity of cooling over 3 million gallons per day to 10 degrees below the ambient incoming water temperature.
The open water supply of the hatchery subjects production fish to endemic bacteria, virus, and parasitic diseases. The disease situation is further complicated by passage of anadromous fish above the hatchery's barrier dam and by both private and State fish hatcheries located above Coleman NFH.
Partial control of diseases is provided by an ozone water treatment system. This ozone water treatment system is the first in the nation to be installed at production level capacity in a hatchery. The system generates up to 250 pounds of ozone per day and can treat up to 14.4 million gallons per day depending on the water quality. This provides treated water for the hatchery and a limited amount for the small raceways. A comparative example of the size and complexity of this system is the City of Redding's (pop. 60,000) water treatment plant has a capacity of 30 million gallons per day. Utilization of ozone for fish culture has an added parameter to normal ozone treatment in that the ozone must be removed from the water before introduction to the fish. This is accomplished with partial removal by stripping towers and completion of the process by normal decay in a detention basin. This removal process then creates another problem; capture and destruction of the ozone released by the stripping tower and point of entry into the detention basin. Modification of the original installation have solved these problems.
This water treatment has proven to be very effective. No significant disease problems have occurred in fish held in treated water. It has been observed that when infections have occurred during shutdown of the system they either disappear or are easily controlled when water treatment is resumed.
Losses of fish to bird predatation have ranged from 20% to 40%. Construction of screens over all raceways has recently been completed to eliminate this problem.
The new spawning facility has greatly reduced the steelhead prespawnig mortality. Both the stress and the physical damage caused by adult salmon when held and sorted at the same time has been reduced, the survival to spawning has increased from an average of 64% to 88%.
The current replacement value of structures is estimated to exceed $30 million and of capitalized property one half million. other than replacement of houses and spawning facility, there has been no other major rehabilitation of this Station. This fact, in conjunction with additional facilities needed to modernize and expand the Stations production capability, have created a development need costing approximately $20 million and a maintenance backlog of $3 million.
Coleman NFH may be in need
of rehabilitation, modernization and expansion, but it has traditionally produced
fish. In Fiscal Year 1989 Coleman's distribution was 29% of the total number
and 13% of the total weight distributed in Region One and 21% of the total number
and 5% of the total weight of the cold water species distributed from the National
Fish Hatchery system.