Coleman National Fish Hatchery

We only have Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River system, but it’s always good to know that there are more species of Pacific salmon!

Check out these fall Chinook salmon eggs that have begun to hatch. Over the next 24 hours nearly all eggs in this tray will have hatched out. Eggs have been hatching at the hatchery for several weeks and the eggs collected back at the beginnning of October have hatched and are almost ready to go to the outdoor raceways. Video description: underwater view of salmon eggs and a few small, newly hatched, fish.

Scavenger hunt time: find where this large tree has fallen into Battle Creek Come visit the hatchery this weekend and enjoy our nature trail! The large pine fell during a recent wind storm and has added some new habitat in the creek. Juvenile salmon and other fishes may use the branches underwater as shelter from predators and also as a place to find food like insects.

Removing dead eggs from incubation trays is essential to keeping the developing eggs healthy. Trays of eggs are placed in a bath of salt water. Dead (white) eggs float while good eggs sink. Staff can easily skim off the dead eggs and then viable eggs are placed back into incubation trays. Video description: dead eggs being skimmed off the top of water.