SALEM, Ore. – ODFW is looking for volunteers to help with the fall Chinook program at Salmon River Hatchery. Shifts are now available and may continue into November. Visit https://midcoaststep.ivolunteer.com for more information and to sign-up for a volunteer shift.

Salmon River Hatchery releases 200,000 adipose-marked and coded wire-tagged fall Chinook salmon smolts each year to support a popular in-river recreational fishery, supplement ocean recreational and commercial fisheries, and provide information for the Pacific Salmon Treaty negotiations that can have a significant effect on Oregon’s Chinook salmon populations.

Salmon River Hatchery fall Chinook are used as an indicator stock to estimate harvest rates for all fall Chinook on the North Oregon coast. The recovery of these fish in the commercial and sport fisheries in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, along with recoveries at the hatchery and on the spawning grounds, are used to represent the harvest rate of Oregon’s coastal fall Chinook in these fisheries.

Volunteers will learn how to net, handle, and identify salmonid species, process fish for food share programs, and assist with other hatchery operations as needed.

For questions, contact Christine Clapp at [email protected] or (541) 961-6386. Hatchery supervisor Michelle Viss can be reached at (541) 994-8606.

Salmon River Hatchery is located at 575 N. North Bank Rd. Otis, Oregon.