Millions of new arrivals at Landsburg hatchery

The collection of spawning sockeye salmon in the Cedar River has resulted in nearly 3 million sockeye salmon eggs being fertilized at a state hatchery in the Maple Valley area.

In a sockeye restoration program administered by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the city of Seattle, about 1,800 fish – roughly half of them males and half females – were captured from September to early-November in a weir spanning the river in Renton. They were then trucked to the hatchery at Landsburg, where about 2.9 million eggs were collected and fertilized.

The project ended about a week early because officials worried that heavy rain in November would cause the river’s water level to rise and damage the weir, a cagelike contraption. The device will be installed again next fall, officials said.

The goal for this year was to collect about 18 million eggs, said Gary Sprague, a Seattle spokesman for the project. The final number, though well short, was about the same as was collected in 2008 at the weir near Cavanaugh Pond.

The return of sockeye this year is the lowest since counts began at the Ballard Locks in Seattle in 1972, he said. Sockeye move through the locks into Lake Washington and then up the Cedar River.

Since 2000, Seattle has been involved in helping restore and enhance sockeye populations in cooperation with King County, state, federal and tribal officials.

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