Gunnuk Creek Hatchery was started in 1973 as a high school project with instream incubators. Kake Non-Profit Fisheries Corporation was founded in 1976 and the hatchery was expanded to incubate and release chum, pink, and coho salmon. Poor source water quality, and technological limitations resulted in very poor survival to hatch and correspondingly poor returns, preventing the corporation’s ability to stay economically viable. In 2014, Kake Non-Profit Fisheries Corporation decided to cede the rights to the property and permits to the state. The hatchery and associated permits were then auctioned by the State of Alaska and in 2017 NSRAA successfully bid for these properties and took over operation of Gunnuk Creek Hatchery at that time.
In late 2017 NSRAA began renovations on the facility, first on the living quarters and office so staff could live on site and not continually transit back and forth from Sitka. Then, in early 2018 renovations began on the incubation facility. It was determined that the only viable way forward for the hatchery, given the poor water quality, was to install a recirculating aquaculture system that had a high degree of solids and contaminant removal before being used for egg and alevin incubation. Since 2018 NSRAA staff have designed, installed, and often fabricated on-site multiple layers of filtration, aeration, and sanitization. Including a large settling tank, three drum filters, and ozonation chamber, in-incubator aeration, UV sanitation, and a water temperature control system. Gunnuk Creek now filters, sanitizes, and recirculates up to 98% of the water used in the facility.
Gunnuk Creek Hatchery is permitted to incubate 65 million chum salmon. Currently the facility incubates 20 million per year as the system is tested and fine-tuned for further expansion with a goal to reach capacity by 2028. The chum salmon are collected as gametes in July and August, incubated through the fall and winter and ponded into marine pens in late winter or early spring. The fry are then reared for approximately five months and released in May or June. They are then free to mature for 3- five years in the ocean before returning to the hatchery to start the cycle again. In addition to chum production NSRAA has a permit to release 200 thousand chinook smolt from the net pens at Gunnuk Creek Hatchery. Chinook are transferred as pre-smolt from Hidden Falls Hatchery and allowed to imprint for several weeks before release. Returning adults have provided benefit to local hand trollers, sport and subsistence users. No chinook broodstock are collected at Gunnuk Creek and any food-quality adults that make it to the hatchery are donated to the community of Kake in cooperation with the Organized Village of Kake and Kake Tribal corporation.
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