Salmon Hatchery

Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Hatchery

The Bernie Kai-Kai Gobin Salmon Hatchery is operated by the Tulalip Tribes and is located on the Tulalip Reservation west of Marysville, Washington. The hatchery raises and releases approximately 11.5 million juvenile salmon (2.4M Chinook, 1.0M coho, and 8.0M chum salmon) each year, which provide fishing opportunity for Tulalip Tribal members in terminal area fisheries on and near to the Tulalip Reservation and also contribute to other commercial and sport fisheries in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and SE Alaska. In addition, the hatchery raises a small number of cutthroat trout annually for planting in Reservation lakes and ponds to provide recreational fishing opportunities for tribal members.

Because many wild salmon runs are currently depressed or endangered, the hatchery returns are especially important to the Tulalip Tribes by providing fishing opportunities in Tulalip Bay that can efficiently target the hatchery production with very low impacts on wild stocks at this time of natural stock rebuilding when other fisheries in mixed stock areas that impact protected stocks may either be closed or greatly reduced. Having a reliable return of hatchery salmon allows tribal members to fish for ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial purposes in Tulalip Bay without overharvest of those wild salmon runs that require protection. The long-term vision of the Tulalip Tribes is the restoration of wild salmon production to levels that will support fishing needs.

All of the hatchery production is uniquely marked and tagged and the Tribe runs an extensive monitoring program to recover the marks and tags from both juvenile and adult salmon in regional fisheries, hatcheries and escapements. To learn more about this state-of-the-art monitoring program, see the link for Stock Assessment.