You keep us going
We depend on your interest, feedback, and participation to help build a sustainable salmon harvest for all users. We invite you to tour our facilities, attend our meetings, and find a role for yourself to support the future of Cook Inlet fishing.
Hatchery tours
We welcome visitors to our hatcheries year-round
When you visit one of our salmon hatcheries, you will learn all about a hatchery’s role in salmon aquaculture in Alaska. Salmon are raised in the hatcheries from eggs to fry or smolt.
Hatchery staff carefully tend to the juvenile fish, ensuring they have a great start to the next journey in their life cycle when the fry or smolt are released to the ocean.
Depending on the species, the fish will return to their release sites as adults in one to three years. Then the hatchery process begins again with egg collection. It is a continuous cycle for our hatchery staff who are passionate about raising salmon.
Use the contact form at the bottom of the page to schedule a tour at one of our hatcheries.
Port Graham
Port Graham Hatchery is a remote facility located in the village of Port Graham in lower Cook Inlet. Access to Port Graham is via boat or plane, typically out of the nearby town of Homer. Here you will learn all about pink salmon.
Trail Lakes
Located near Moose Pass, Trail Lakes Hatchery is our most accessible hatchery because it is on the road system. At this hatchery, visitors will learn about sockeye and coho salmon. Here, we have a self-guided visitor’s center for people who want to stop in during open hours.
Tutka Bay Lagoon
Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery is located in Kachemak Bay State Park. The normal mode of getting there is via boat such as one of the water taxis that runs from Homer. We routinely receive visitors also taking a hiking, fishing, or kayak trip. Hatchery visitors will learn primarily about pink salmon aquaculture.
More about hatcheries
Schedule a Tour
Cook Inlet Regional Planning Team
As a member of the public who may have questions or concerns about our hatchery operations, the best way to voice those comments is to participate in a Cook Inlet Regional Planning Team meeting. Salmon fishery enhancement planning is Alaska is set forth in law, which includes Regional Planning Teams.
These “RPTs” prepare regional comprehensive salmon plans, review and provide recommendations on private nonprofit hatchery permits to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commissioner, and they may also review annual hatchery management plans.
The Cook Inlet Regional Planning Team provides these functions for our hatchery operations. The team is made up of representatives from Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association as well as Alaska Departments of Fish and Game and Natural Resources staff.
The meetings are open to the public and information on upcoming meetings can be found here.
Board of Directors meetings
The Cook Inlet Aquaculture Board of Directors is governed by a volunteer board dedicated to providing and protecting the salmon resources of Cook Inlet for all user groups.
We invite you to come listen, learn, comment, and interact with us at a board meeting, which are held in September, November, January, February, March, and May.