The Hama Hama is an all species site that has multiple species supplementation projects occurring in individual 12 year restoration projects, these include: the ESA listed Chinook, Summer Chum, and at risk Steelhead. The Hama Hama Summer Chum Restoration Project is a cooperative project between HCSEG and Long Live The Kings that is overseen by a Technical Work Group made up of WDFW, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA), US Forest Service, Point No Point Treaty Tribes, Skokomish Tribe, HCSEG, and LLTK. 
LLTK & HCSEG work together on restoration projects on the Westside of Hood Canal on the Hama Hama River located and running through the Robbins Property.  WDFW staff provide technical support on our restoration efforts.  

The Hama Hama River system is unique as this is an all species site which include: Summer Chum, Fall Chum, Chinook , Coho, Cutthroat, Pink and Steelhead salmonid species.  The supplementation projects the HCSEG and LLTK are specifically involved with include three different species of salmon: Chinook, Summer Chum, & Steelhead.  

 Volunteers use a beach seine to capture Summer Chum for broodstock.

Each salmon supplementation restoration project runs for twelve years. The Chinook project started in 1995, the Summer Chum project started in 1997 and the Steelhead project started in 1998.  Each project differs in methodology, but the result of increasing the at-risk populations is the same. 

In the Summer Chum Supplementation Project, we begin by collecting broodstock from the river throughout the entire run, and snorkel the river to counting the number of returning fish. 

Project Manager, Rick Endicott, snorkels amidst the trapped salmon and collects the Summer Chum for spawning.  

In the spawning process, the Summer Chum are laid out just before we spawn them.  Many different samples are taken including age, genetics, length and weight data which are collected from each of them.  During the spawning process, we collect eggs from the females first.  We divide each females eggs into at least 3 buckets and then collect milt from the males.  To maintain the genetic diversity that would occur in nature we use factorial crosses during mating.  Each female's eggs is mixed with at least 2 or 3 different male's milt. 

Milt is collected from the males for spawning.

Milt is added to separate buckets of eggs.  When eggs and milt are combined, they are put in water to activate the milt, then the resulting fertilization occurs.  

Once fertilized, the eggs are placed in Wild Salmon Incubators (WSI's) until they hatch and enter ponds on they're own.  Pictured right, volunteers help set up Wild Salmon Incubators (WSI's) on John's Creek, a tributary of the Hama Hama.  After the eggs have hatched, we raise the baby Summer Chum until they average 1 gram a piece.  We then release them into the river, where they migrate immediately to sea.  Those that survive in nature return in 3 to 4 years to begin their own spawning lifecycle. 

Our Chinook Supplementation Project on the Hama has recently changed.  The brood stock, egg take and WSI has been the same in years past.  However, this year we are now taking smolts instead of eggs.  Previously, we raised eggs in the WSI's, fed the fry in raceways, fin clipped the juveniles for identification and then released the salmon, waiting for their return to the Hama.  Otoliths samples from the returning adult brood stock were also taken to ensure they were our supplemented fish and start the cycle over again. 

Now, we have changed our method in hopes to ensure better assessment of current harvest data.  In 2005, we took 35,000 Hama Hama Chinook smolts and 35,000 George Adams Hatchery Chinook smolts and are raising them in WSI's at the George Adams Hatchery.   In late spring, they will be coded wire tagged and shipped to the Hama Hama ponds where they will be reared until June where they will be released.  Since they will be at the Hama for a significant period, they will acclimate to this river and will return to it.

The Hama Hama Steelhead Project started in 1998, when it was realized that the Wild Steelhead escapement after continually declining, was at a dangerously low population. HCSEG & LLTK proposed a multifaceted recovery effort that included releasing 2-year old smolts and raising broodstock steelhead (mature adults) for release into the Hama.  Neither method is typical.  However, in nature Steelhead smolt as 2-yr olds.  By releasing adult Steelhead into the river to spawn, gives us opportunity for research. 

Steelhead eggs

Unlike their Pacific cousins, Steelhead salmon are the only species of salmon known to return to the ocean after spawning.  Since Steelhead can be "repeat spawners", we do not take eggs and milt from adults. 
 
As this project draws to a close, changes in the methodology of the project are also occurring.  Beginning in 2006,  we will cease pumping of the Steelhead redds to obtain eggs for supplementation efforts.  Previously, during the spawning season, we would count redds, mark them, record the date of appearance, and collect temperature data in the river. The temperature was calculated in units (TU's) to determine when the eggs become eyed and are no longer sensitive.  It is only at this point that we would then pump the eggs from the gravel with a wand-like nozzle, forcing water into the substrate, loosely floating them to the water's surface.  The eggs were then obtained without harm and were then placed on a moist sponge until they were transferred to Wild Salmon Incubators (WSI's).

Volunteers pump Steelhead redds and catch the eggs in nets.

In the future we will only be capturing smolts and raising those in ponds at Johns Creek and Lilliwaup Hatchery.  The Steelhead, as with all  our supplemented fish, are fed to as close as natural feeding patterns as possible to raise them to healthy 2-year smolts.  The broodstock are routinely sampled for weight and length, and each one has a pit tag that identifies them as individuals.   In the Spring of 2007, these two year old Steelhead will then be released  as sexually mature adults.  At that point we will come to closure on this project as well.    
  

Steelhead Project Manager (LLTK), Brodie Smith takes lengths from the broodstock Steelhead.

Rick Endicott sets the fish planting truck up for the release of the 2-year old Steelhead smolts into the Hama Hama River.
 

Senator Slade Gorton releases the Steelhead smolts.
 

The Hama Hama which literally means "Stinky Stinky" in Skokomish Native language was named for the overwhelming pungent smell of returning adult salmon.  It is said among the Native peoples of this area, that a healthy river can be smelled a mile away during the spawning season.  The Hama Hama River, which as mentioned is an all species site, used to have large, abundant numbers salmon.  It is our goal and dream that it will be that way again.

 
 For current story on Hama Hama Steelhead project click here.