Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Keyport, participated in a fish transfer coordinated by the Suquamish Tribe, March 1-2.

The Suquamish Tribe restarted its coho salmon net pen operation after a seven-year hiatus. The fish release had been conducted annually for two decades but was discontinued in 2003 due to rearing and budget constraints.

“We are pleased to partner with the Suquamish Tribe on this important fish transfer,” said Capt. Stephen Iwanowicz, Naval Undersea Warfare Center commanding officer. “This is a great example of how the Navy is committed to being good stewards of the environment, along with deepening the strong relationships we have with our Native American neighbors.”

The fish were bred at the state’s Minter Creek Hatchery near Purdy then in January transferred to the Suquamish Tribe and City of Bremerton’s Gorst Hatchery, about 20 miles south of the NUWC. Once they reached the one and a half-year-old smolt stage of a salmon’s lifecycle, the coho were ready to transition from living in freshwater to saltwater before heading out to sea.

The fish were transferred from the hatchery to Keyport using fish transfer trucks from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. At Keyport, approximately 265,000 smolts were loaded onto a tribal barge, which took the fish out to a net pen that is just slightly smaller than an Olympic-sized swimming pool.  The fish will spend nearly three months in the pen acclimating to the salt water environment and imprinting on the area prior to being released.

“It’s great to be able to reengage this program because it provides a Kitsap-based coho fishery opportunity for tribal members, with benefits for non-treaty fishers as well,” said Jay Zischke, the tribe’s marine fish manager. “This has been a multi-year collaboration, which has involved working with our co-managers, Washington State, the City of Bremerton and the U.S. Navy.”

Net pen operations like this are common throughout Puget Sound and are often successful in contributing to Washington fisheries. During the first two decades of the Agate Pass program, 600,000 hatchery coho were released each year from the net pens. Puget Sound coho are considered a “species of concern” under the federal Endangered Species Act.