Sockeye moved due to flood concerns

Idaho Fish and Game Departmen personnel have transported about 4,000 adult sockeye salmon from the department’s Eagle Fish Hatchery in Southwest Idaho to its sockeye hatchery at Springfield near Aberdeen. the reason they did this is because there’s a threat of flooding at the eagle hatchery that could cause problems. this is an endangered species so they didn’t want to take any chances.

“Fortunately for us we have a beautiful new hatchery – Springfield Fish Hatchery in the eastern part of the state,” Guy Byrne with Fish and Game said. “It is dedicated to the recovery effort of these sockeye salmon. They’re still not a full capacity. They’re ramping to full capacity so this year they do have some extra space, so when you aligned all those things it made sense to put those fish where we absolutely knew they’d be out of harms way.”

The Springfield Fish Hatchery was completed in 2013 and is expected to produce a million sockeye smolts for release in 2018.