The Solomon Gulch Hatchery, Alaska, United States
4.5 (279 reviews) Spent 1-2 hours Ranking #3 in Valdez Nature & Wildlife Areas
Very Nice
VFDA built the Solomon Gulch Hatchery (SGH) in 1981, and released its first pink salmon fry in 1982. It has operated consistently since then. The water for the hatchery is provided by the Solomon Gulch Hydroelectric Plant, owned by the Copper Valley Electric Association through a cooperative agreement. VFDA employs a hatchery crew of twelve full and part-time employees, and is directed by Hatchery Manager Rob Unger. Other staff includes an assistant manager, fish culturists, maintenance support staff, and night watchmen. The hatchery staff lives in the Valdez community. SGH has a permitted green egg capacity to incubate 230 million pink salmon and 2 million coho salmon each year. These egg capacities are strictly controlled by the State of Alaska. With this capacity, VFDA achieves annual releases of approximately 218 million pink salmon fry, and 1.75 million coho salmon smolt. Egg take or spawning happens in late summer. Hatchery staff may spawn as many as 16,000 adult brood stock each day. These fish return to the hatchery spawning building by entering the facility using a fish ladder, which carry the fish from salt water to raceways on shore. Over the winter, the hatchery staff tends to the eggs as they hatch into alevin and settle into simulated gravel to subsist from their yolk sacs. In early spring, the fry emerge and are ready to go to sea. VFDA pumps the fry to net pens off shore where they are fed using commercial salmon feeds until they reach a target weight of at least 0.5 grams. From there, the smolts are released to complete their life cycle in the open sea. This process is known as ocean ranching. The adults, which average about 3.5 pounds each, return the following summer, and the process starts all over again. Average adult returns to the hatchery are approximately 13 million adult pink, and 160,000 coho salmon. After harvesting a small percentage of the return for cost recovery and brood stock, the remainder is harvested primarily by the commerci...
Address
1455 Dayville Road, Valdez, AK 99686
Mobile
Website
http://www.valdezfisheries.org/the-hatchery/
Current local date and time now
Friday, May 10, 2024, 10:28
User Ratings
4.5 based on (279 reviews)
Reviews
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5veryuniquetraveler 5:00 PM Sep 7, 2022
Amazing wildlife
You simply must stop here if you are ever in Valdez, especially during the salmon spawn. We saw wildlife on several glacier cruises during our trip, but here you got to be very close to the wildlife and unlike a zoo you got to see the animals doing what they do in nature. It was breathtaking! There was a large pod of sea lions there during our visit. Some were lying on the shore so close you could almost reach out and touch them. It was amazing to watch them at the entrance to the fish ladder catching fish in their mouths and shaking them around til they had them swallowed. The site was teaming with gulls and other birds so much so you felt like you were in the movie, " The Birds". There was also an eagle who kept flying right over our heads and we were able to get some great close ups of him. Met someone who said there were 3 bears there the day before. I wish we had been able to see bears, but the sea lions were fascinating. They have signage and TV monitors giving a self-guided tour of the hatchery operation which is interesting.
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5BigBry 5:00 PM Oct 30, 2022
Fantastic
This is a must see for everyone. Having gone to the trouble of creating these artificial spawning facilities this hatchery went one step further and opened every part up for the public to roam around and enjoy. We visited four times in three days to see the spectacle of the thousands and thousands of salmon, dozens of seals, otters and the occasional bald eagle – all enjoying this annual bounty. (FYI, brown bears are a VERY rare sighting there).
