Kokanee Fry Monitoring — Three Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited

Kokanee Fry Monitoring is going on now every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday night until mid-May.
If you would like to volunteer, contact Wayne Lamm, the kokanee fry monitoring program co-lead. To learn more and help out in other ways, contact us at 3riverstu@gmail.com.

The Little Red Fish at risk.

Kokanee is a salmon species native to Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington. Unlike other salmon, kokanee stay in freshwater instead of migrating to the ocean and back so they are the smallest of the salmon species in our region. Genetically most similar to sockeye salmon, mature adults are also bright red. Historically, kokanee were plentiful in the area, but today the population is endangered due to human impact. For more than a decade, we have focused on kokanee recovery.

Staff-Supported conservation.

Lake Sammamish is an Urban Wildlife Refuge under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. We are incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work closely with two full-time national Trout Unlimited staff members. Together, David Kyle and Alix Lee-Tigner provide leadership and guidance by conducting scientific research, building community partnerships, and coordinating habitat restoration work in the greater Seattle area that benefit kokanee.

Community-Powered Data Collection

Every year from late February to mid May, we operate fish traps on three kokanee spawning streams around Lake Sammamish. The goal is to catch and count kokanee fry migrating from the stream to the lake. These data are used by Trout Unlimited staff and local government scientists to estimate the population and determine the impact of recovery efforts. To avoid predators, kokanee fry usually migrate after dark, so monitoring occurs four nights a week. Each evening, traps are lowered three times for one hour to collect fish. Between set-up, trapping time, and fish counting, it is about three-and-a-half to four hours. Meeting this data collection commitment can involve over 50 volunteers per monitoring season.

Show your support.

For this event, we primarily need volunteers, however, financial and material donations are also important. For safety, a minimum of two volunteers is needed at each field site to collect data. With three field sites for four nights a week for three months, it adds up to a lot of people. Volunteer leads also coordinate field collection and compile data for analysis. Funding is needed to maintain and update fish traps and other monitoring equipment such as shovels and thermometers so that we can collect accurate data. We also need to cover operating costs for field collection permits, storing equipment, and transporting to and from the field site. The fish traps are big and we depend on volunteers to provide trucks for transport.