Hatchery Facility's

Hatchery Facilities

The original DIPAC hatchery built in 1976, it was a small facility located on the back porch of the Macaulay residence at Kowee Creek. From there, the hatchery was moved to the back yard, inside one of Joe Juneau's original gold mine adits. In 1983, a small two-story building was constructed in front of the adit and it was later used as a research unit by the University of Alaska. the hatchery is no longer in use and the permit was returned to the State of Alaska.

In 1980, the decision was made for DIPAC's expansion to a second hatchery, two miles south of Juneau, after the Kowee Creek Hatchery, witnessed a 20,000+ pink return in 1979. Prior to the Hatchery program, Kowee Creek had not produced a single wild stock salmon in the previous seven years.

The second facility, the Sheep Creek Hatchery, operates on a gravity flow water intake system. Plans called for the production of 20 million summer chum eggs for the Lower Lynn Canal and Taku gillnetters. However, pink salmon were kept for cash flow purposes until the chums returned in adequate numbers. In 1986, the Coho Annex facility was constructed at Sheep Creek in order to build a broodstock source for what was eventually to become the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. The hatchery is currently permitted for 40 million pink/chum and 350,000 coho. Today to hatchery is used for additional coho rearing to help augment the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery production.

The Macaulay Salmon Hatchery was completed in 1990 at a capital cost of $7.4 million. The hatchery is permitted for 50 million pink, 121 million chum, 1.5 million coho and 950,000 chinook. The facility can in fact hold up to 300 million eggs. The Macaulay Salmon Hatchery is one of the five largest salmon hatcheries in the State of Alaska.

The Macaulay facility is also the home of DIPAC's Macaulay Visitor Center. The attraction has accommodated hundreds of thousands of visitors since 1990. Through admission, concession and rental revenue DIPAC's Tourism Division is able to support its own budget as well as provide valuable educational programs to school districts statewide.

The city of Juneau has located a sport fishing dock next to the Macaulay hatchery site. The urban fishing opportunity has proved to be a success for Juneau residents and visitors alike. The sport fishing dock provides sport fisherman direct access to salmon returning to the hatchery