Valdez - Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery

Saturday was a beautiful day for fishing and the women were all out (they estimated over 1000 women to be out fishing).

We went to the Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery which was established to ensure sufficient numbers of salmon return and reproduce each year. 

When the pink salmon return from late June to early August, they swarm on the hatchery in a blizzard of fish. The hatchery releases more than 200 million pinks and 2 million silvers (or coho) each year. There is no stream for the salmon to return to, so they try to get back into the hatchery, crowding together in a solid sea of fighting muscle. Seals and birds come in to feed, and you can stand on shore and watch (and smell) the spectacle.

The first picture shows a weir which is used to stop fish from swimming upstream.  Those that do make it spawn, lay their eggs, and eventually die.  This guy is throwing the dead fish back over the weir.

Above the weir the water comes down from a dam - the black you see in the water are schooling salmon. 

The following pictures show the salmon attempting to get to and up and over the weir.

These fish are further out from the weir.

The first time we were here, the tide was out and there were dead fish all along the rocks.  This video that I found will show the fish in action.  Of course there are lots of sea gulls waiting for the inevitable.  When the camera pans the rocks, you see all the fish along the shoreline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zou35WHaDy0

It's kind of sad to watch, but I guess that is the circle of life here.  Bears frequent this area but so far we have not seen any.