Salmon Arrive to Edmonds Waters

This morning, 30,000 one-year-old Coho salmon arrived at the Port of Edmonds. The fish will be gradually introduced to life in Puget Sound.

The annual project assures a thriving local saltwater salmon population. Come summer, sport fishermen will have the chance to catch the salmon, and the fish that aren't snatched up will continue to swim free.

The fish spent their first year at the Washington State Salmon Hatchery in Issaquah. Today, the Edmonds Salmon Chapter of Trout Unlimited helped unload the salmon from tank trucks into a saltwater net pen.

The pen will then be moved out to the Edmonds Fishing Pier, where it will remain until June. Members of Trout Unlimited feed the fish two to three times weekly, enabling the fish to triple in size and weight over a period of 14 weeks. The salmon are then released into Puget Sound.

The project, part of a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife effort, has taken place each year for 25 years.