Water pump failure at hatchery causes loss of 1.2M newly hatched salmon

During a routine facility check Nov. 18, Rapid River Fish Hatchery staff detected a pump used to supply oxygenated water to the early rearing/incubation building had malfunctioned. The alarm system designed to identify water flow associated with pump failure also failed. 

Staff were able to turn on a secondary pump as soon as the situation was discovered, but the temporary interruption of flow resulted in the loss of roughly 1.2 million newly hatched Chinook — about one-third of the hatchery’s annual production.