Until Sunday, the Hollow Tree Creek Salmon Hatchery was a fond childhood memory for Jay Husman.
After making a five-hour drive to the end of a bumpy gravel road, he arrived to join about a dozen volunteers who worked over the course of a week to cut the fins of about 88,000 three-inch Chinook salmon.
Husman, who is retired from Foster Farms, remembers his parents volunteering for the same event decades ago but enjoyed his first ever time helping out.
Those at the fin-clipping on Sunday credited Husman”s parents with being important among the commercial fishing families who got the hatchery and World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue started 35 years ago.
“They would come up with a group of commercial fisherman and their wives. I always found it neat what the fishermen were doing, returning the salmon to the ocean. They worked hard at it,” said Husman.
Husman saw a reposting of an Advocate-News story about the event on the Coastside Fishing Club discussion boards Thursday and was on the road to come help by Friday. Another volunteer came from Reno to help, but most were rounded up by hatchery manager Spencer Stiff and retiring hatchery manager Jerry Wall.
The salmon, while only the size of a pinky finger, were nothing like an ordinary minnow. They hopped and roiled in nets after being fished out of 1,000-gallon plastic tanks where they live at the hatchery.
Stiff dipped the bespeckled babies into water containing clove oil, which briefly tranquilized them. Then each fish had to be scooped out of a bucket by a volunteer and a quick cut made on the left ventral fin with a pair of scissors. The tiny fish would react to the surgery by wiggling furiously until returned to the water. Each fish was different and the distinctive angular shape and big mouth of some of the larger babies brought smiles from the fishermen on hand.
The missing fin will tell hatchery workers three to four years from now that the fish came from Hollow Tree Creek Salmon Hatchery, and they will not be used for spawns there to avoid in-breeding.
Wall and Stiff were proud of the fact that only a few fish had been lost despite tens of thousands being handled. Wall has maintained that record of low mortality for decades, he said.
Stiff worked at a much larger hatchery on the Trinity River, where the baby fish have higher mortality rates and a rougher ride in and out of the hatchery.
“You can see how healthy those fish look. They”re beautiful,” said Stiff.
Husman, admired the hatchery operation, especially the low mortality rate.
“I”m really impressed with the operation here. Jerry and Spencer really seem like they have everything working and under control. The mortality is something to be envious of in the chicken industry,” he said.
The crews finished their work on Sunday afternoon. The fish have grown slower than usual this year because of colder than usual water and won”t be ready for release for a few more weeks — hopefully before the barbecue.
Husman plans to bring his boat up next weekend and try to catch some salmon to donate to the barbecue. Noyo Harbor party boats have donated a day of free fishing on June 7, with all salmon caught by participants to be donated to the July 1 World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue.
“I love to salmon fish. It”s guys like this that make it possible for guys like me to go out and catch the salmon,” Husman said.
For more information, contact Salmon Restoration Association President Joe Janisch at 962-0548 or email jsjanisch@peoplepc.com.
