Far fewer salmon eggs and fry than hoped are incubating this year at the Welcome Stream hatchery operated by the Waitaki Riparian Enhancement Society on the Waitaki River.
The society was hoping to make up a disastrous last season, that started well enough with about 40,000 fry at the hatchery, but ended with stocks being decimated when water stopped flowing into trays. It was cut again to only 1110 fish when water dropped at the Bell's Pond rearing race.
The fry were released in the Waitaki River in February.
Trapping salmon in the Hakataramea River started in April, and publicity officer Linn Koevoet hoped that would result in about 50,000 eggs in the hatchery.
However, after 42 days with the trap in the river, 30 salmon were trapped of which 12 were female.
The trap had to be taken out of the river during several floods.
''We were short in obtaining our brood stock, and we have only half the minimum amount of eggs we wanted,'' he said.
There were 17,000 viable eggs and fry, with three trays of unknown numbers, incubating at the hatchery.
This season, salmon from the first release in 2012 of 2000 salmon returned to the river. Five of these tagged fish were weighed in at the Glenavy Hotel and the society was notified of another three that were not weighed in.
Of the five weighed in, all were caught below Duntroon.
The society was set up to enhance the Waitaki River and its salmon fishery, its focus on operating a hatchery at Welcome Stream on the south bank, and rearing pens at Bell's Pond on the north bank.
