(1) Wild Salmon Stocks
Two principal wild salmon stocks are found in the Samarga river, cherry salmon and pink salmon, both of considerable size. The utilization of the former is restricted to subsistence use by local communities, while the latter is available for commercial harvest at the river mouth.
The resource data made available as well as the actual findings made during the field trip clearly indicated that there indeed is a possibility of building a sustainable and locally based salmon fishery and processing business.

As a result, a special effort is currently under way both in Tokyo and Vladibostok to put together a 5-year plan to develop a local fishery including a cherry salmon hatchery with the people of Agzu acting as the nucleus which will be fully compatible with the ecosystem of the Samarga river basin so that the village of Agzu will have its own building bricks with which to construct its own sustainable economic basis into the 21st century.

(2) Japanese salmon hatchery technology and experience

(A) MIOMOTE RIVER HATCHERY (Muakami, Nigata)
If the people of Japan (the map above and the picture to the right show Miomote River in Murakami City where a modern cherry salmon hatchery is located) can help the people of the Samaraga river basin develop their own sustainable cherry salmon fishery, it will certainly kick off the growth of a mutually beneficial economic and cultural relationship between the northwestern prefectures of Japan and Russia's Primorsky Region.
The Russian side will benefit from the growth of a profitable new fishery targeted at the Japanese market, while the Japanese coastal communities along the Japan Sea shores will benefit from their counterparts in the Primorsky Region helping them restore the cherry salmon rung of the Japanese rivers through a hatchery-to-hatchery exchange program. (picture shows the building of a new cherry salmon hatchery located at the above point on Miomote River, Murakami)

As you walk into the building, you see four rows of wooden incubators with the egg-holding capacity of 500,000 eggs and indoor fry rearing ponds of concrete construction with 28.6 square meters of bottom space (pictures to the right and below) especially designed for cherry salmon hatchery operations.


This hatchery is designed to take eggs from the wild spawners, both male (15 to 20% of the catch) and female, which come into Miomote River in April, May and June and spawn during the fall months of September, October and November, contrary to the cherry salmon hatcheries of Hokkaido which depends on the pond-reared female fish for eggs.
The mainland cherry salmon hatcheries south of Hokkaido island located on the rivers pouring into Japan Sea still have some wild cherry salmon left, and the local fishery cooperatives and other organizations operating these hatcheries are consciously trying to maximize the use of wild stocks instead of pond-reared fish for obvious genetic reasons.

The indoor facilities are then connected to the outdoor fish rearing ponds of 318.6 square meters in floor size. The indoor facilities are then connected to the outdoor fish rearing ponds of 318.6 square meters in floor size, where the cherry salmon fry are reared to grow up to the size of 6 cms in length, or 3 grams in body weight.

At the beginning, this hatchery reared the fry to grow up to the smolt size of 30 to 40 grams to ensure the highest possible survival rate. However, these fish were subjected not only to the sometimes questionable water quality and habitat conditions of the river, but also fell easy pray to the pressure of sport fishing which allows the taking of landlocked cherry salmon, or Yamame in Japanese, which is hard to be distinguished from the sea-bound smolts.
The work sequence is about the same as it would be in Russia's Primorsky Region. The eggs taken during October and November are hatched and the fry normally leave the spawning bed and start moving freely in the tank, at which time they are moved to the indoor rearing ponds.
The fry that are grown large enough are then moved to the outdoor rearing ponds where they are kept until they reach the releasing size of 3 grams, or 6 cms in March and April. At this hatchery, some 200,000 to 250,000 young fish are released every year at this time while it has a considerable extra capacity for future production increase.

The entire system is controlled by a semi-automated control panel located inside the building so that the operation of each stage can be closely monitored by a single operator. Often, the hatchery is left unattended while eggs are being hatched and juvenile fish are being reared, only subjected to spot checks at regular intervals by a roving inspector.
In addition to the production facilities, the hatchery has a living quarter with a multi-functional room with simple cooking facilities so that a few part-time operators can stay for intensive resident in-season work, while it can also be used by individuals with part-time work assignments during the off-season months.

The building itself is insulated so as to enable fall and winter operations executed under controlled conditions.
All in all, this particular hatchery is only a few years old, and can serve as a model for the first hatchery on the Samarga river because of its compactness and easy-to-operate simplicity thanks to modern technology. As to the water source, both a nearby stream and a deep well are used for controlling the water temperatures at desired levels, while the well water is aerated both for adding oxygen and taking out the naturally contained nitrogen.

(B) KUMAISHI HATCHERY (Kumaishi, Hokkaido)

Brief History:

The Kumaishi hatchery was built and opened in November, 1983 at the present site in Kumaishi-Cho, Jishi-gun, Hokkaido as the 6th substation of the Hokkaido's Regional Fish Hatcheries System headquartered in Eniwa City, Hokkaido with an aim to prosecute the investigation and research projects associated with Hokkaido's comprehensive salmon stock rehabilitation project for the southern region of Japan Sea.

Installations, Land Area and Machines/Equipment:

As already said, this hatchery is based upon rearing the hatched cherry salmon fry in feeding ponds until they become of size for release into the river. At the beginning, fry were reared until they grew up to 30 to 40 grams, or nearly smolt size, in order to ensure good return ratio. But later, it was discovered that sport fishermen was the worst enemy because the fish are ready to strike man-made baits, and the practice was changed to releasing them when they are 3 grams, or about 6 cm in length (You can click the table above to see it in a full-blown size).

(1) Installations
1) Total land area used: 11,983 square meters, 2) Buildings floor space: 437 square meters
*Administrative space such as offices, research room, and living/rest area: 164.0 square meters
*Support facilities under roof such as garages, machine room, feed storage, and power house: 120.0 square meters
*Water supply tank: 18.5 square meters (see the picture above)

(You can click the table above to see it in a full-blown size).
*Hatchery units:
(a) Facilities for all salmon species including cherry salmon: Egg-holding facilities: 273.0 square meters, Feeding ponds: 999.4 square meters (24 ponds), Nurturing ponds: 1,017 square meters (12 ponds)


(b) Facilities exclusively for cherry salmon: Nurturing ponds for young fry: 398.2 square meters (4 ponds), Ponds for brood stocks: 1,200.3 square meters (4 ponds), Egg extraction room: 20.0 square meters
Again, this hatchery is based upon the idea of using pond-reared adult cherry salmon for reproduction, and thus, undergoes the complete renewal of the brood stocks every so many years to stay away from genetic complications.

(2) Capacities
1) Cherry salmon egg production capacity: 9,000,000 eggs
2) Cherry salmon egg holding capacity: 21,200,000 eggs
3) Fry nurturing capacity: 2,310,000 cherry salmon and 4,680,000 other salmon species
4) Juvenile fish feeding capacity: 1,800,000 cherry salmon and 4,200,000 other salmon species

(3) Water supply
The hatchery uses two independent sources of water supply, i.e., the natural river water and a deep well water, so as to be able to regulate the water tempreture at different levels needed by mixing the water from the two sources.
Total supply of 18.4 tons per minute, consisting of: 1) 12.4 tons of natural river water (see the picture below)

2) 6 tons of well water It is especially important here that they can pull down the tank water tempreture to the optimum low level by adding the cold well water during the hot summer months.

(4) Management/Operating Organization
1) The total of 5 permanent staff members with 6 part-time employees
2) Organization

Branch director (1 person) 1) Rehabilitation Section (2 persons) engaged in the rearing/releasing of cherry salmon and technical assistance to private hatcheries
2) Investigation/Research Section (2 persons) engaged in the investigation and research activities of all salmon species, preservation and rehabilitation/improvement of their freshwater habitats

Operations:

1) Salmon hatchery and fry release operation
2) Pond-reared cherry salmon production and fry release operation aimed at achieving a stable cherry salmon stock rehabilitation by means of pond-reared brood stocks
3) Examination of the ways and mans of releasing cherry salmon fry and/or smolts with an aim to develop the best methods for maximizing the return ratio.
4) Examination of the overall salmon resources dynamics and biological data collection
5) Examination of the cherry and pink salmon resources dynamics and biological data collection
6) Examination of the on-going status of the regulated freshwater systems
7) Examination of the effectiveness of the salmon passage ways and their improvement works