According to the project lead of the hatchery, Brett Galyean, this year, only 5,000 Chinook Salmon returned to spawn. A sharp drop from the 10,000 last year and the second-lowest the hatchery has seen in two decades. Galyean says the low number of salmon returning will make it harder to collect the 12 million eggs they hope to get that would let them release a large generation of smelts in the spring of 2024.