TOPIC:

Hi all, some unfortunate news to share. Several weeks ago, a power surge fried multiple pieces of equipment, and the subsequent power outage led to significant loss of fingerling winter-run steelhead at Mixsawbah. They lost approximately 2/3rds of their 2024 production, which will reduce winter-run steelhead stocking on the Little Cal and Trail Creek. After the power surge, the equipment responsible for automatically turning backup generators on failed (due to the power surge), as did the transfer switch on the generator. Additionally, surge suppressors on the recycle pumps and the wells had to be replaced before they could be operated again. Hatchery staff worked quickly to manually get the generator going and transferred power to the pumps and wells, but the fish were small and in inside raceways, which means they cannot last very long (more like minutes than hours) without fresh water coming in to replenish oxygen.Thankfully we still have about 1/3rd of this year’s winter run production left, which will get stocked as normal. I would anticipate lower than average spring steelhead runs on NWI tributaries in 2027/2028. Since steelhead run at multiple ages, there will still be a spring run with fishable numbers. For instance, due to the pandemic the 2020 winter run egg take did not happen, but the 2023 creel survey estimated that more steelhead were caught in NWI tribs during Mar/Apr of both 2023 than the 2021 or 2022 seasons, despite a missing yearclass of fish for the 2023 run.Outside pond production of larger fish getting stocked this fall (coho and Skamania steelhead) were not substantially affected.

Damn, that sucks to hear. What’s the cost to upgrade/replace the equipment? Seems like I’ve been reading about the need to improve the infrastructure at the hatcheries for a few years now. Hopefully this will be the last time we hear about a loss of fish.

Is there anyway to make use of the vacated capacity?

I'm not sure of the exact cost to replaced the equipment - in the low thousands probably. There are other major infrastructure issues and deferred maintenance at all the hatcheries. Michigan just spend around 30 million just on deferred maintenance, and it'd probably take that or more to to fix up Indiana's. Mixsawbah and Bodine are Indiana's newest hatcheries and they are 40-50 years old.

There is no way to make use of the vacated capacity, as those fish were supposed to be stocked in December, and they are the youngest fish stocked in this calendar year so there are no other fish coming up behind them until January-ish, after the coho and chinook eggs hatch out
 

Thanks for sharing this information. This is very unfortunate to have a loss of fish with this one. Thanks for the quick action by our Mixsawbah staff. It could of been worse.

Not sure how many times we have heard about the need of getting our hatchery up to par. As Ben and others have pointed out a few times, we need a new biofilter and infrastructure work at Mixsawbah. Cost is approx 4 to 4 1/2 million dollars. Band -aid fixes have been taken place to keep the bio filter functioning. At one time there was a consideration for a new hatchery. One that could take care of both Bodine and Mixsawbah's needs. That cost is just a mere 60+ million dollars. Indiana's fishery is 100% dependent on both of these hatcheries. If getting this work done was up to Ben or Rob Ackerson manager of Mixsawbah it would of happened already. so bringing this effort forward,it is up to us to get in the ears of our politicians. They know how to contact when asking for money. let them hear from you on your needs for this fishery. One voice gets hushed quickly. How loud can we be with all our voices?

You could let them know that Indiana makes a good profit yearly from our fishery. In 2016 the Indiana Lake Michigan fishery was worth approx 13 million dollars. Let that sink in. 13 million annually. Again that did not include the charter captains and the money raised by them. Add in the cost of inflation since 2016 and the fact that our fishery is now much better then it was in 2016. Our fishery is worth big bucks. So are you ready to ask for this work to be done? Or do we wait till Ben logs in another post on loss at Mixsawbah? I have written letters to some of our politicians, all the way up to the Governor's office. Again one voice gets hushed quickly. yesterday I dropped off another letter to the office of Frank Mrvan. I asked for some one on one time with him so I can get into this subject with more information. Now I have to once more wait for a contact back. If in the future we can get him and others to a meeting room to discuss this, I would hope that we could fill the house with interested community fisher folks. For 50 years Mixsawbah has served us well. She needs help. Are you willing to help?