This story is an excerpt from a longer interview that was collected as part of the Launching through the Surf: The Dory Fleet of Pacific City project. In this story, Jim Allen recounts raising silver salmon in the creek behind his house

Allen, James

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Transcript of Raising Silver Salmon

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Linfield College DigitalCommons@Linfield All Story Transcripts Story Transcripts 8-4-2011 Transcript of Raising Silver Salmon James Allen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/dory_transcripts_all  Part of the Cultural History Commons, Oral History Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Allen, James, "Transcript of Raising Silver Salmon" (2011). All Story Transcripts. Transcript. Submission 23. https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/dory_transcripts_all/23 This Transcript is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It is brought to you for free via open access, courtesy of DigitalCommons@Linfield, with permission from the rights-holder(s). Your use of this Transcript must comply with the Terms of Use for material posted in DigitalCommons@Linfield, or with other stated terms (such as a Creative Commons license) indicated in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, or if you have questions about permitted uses, please contact digitalcommons@linfield.edu. 	   1	  Title: Raising Silver Salmon   Storyteller: Jim Allen  Interviewer: Chris Forrer Interview Date: 2011-08-04 Collection: Launching through the Surf: The Dory Fleet of Pacific City Repository: DigitalCommons@Linfield Transcribers:  Whitney Weber, Andrea Snyder, Mary Beth Jones   JIM ALLEN: James J. Allen. 1968.1  When we didn’t have any silvers and we couldn’t fish for ‘em any more, w—we had a STEP2 program. And which for me, is beyond belief that they still don’t have it. But they, they use the Wild Fish Policy I think is, is the reason to—give us egg—all they had to do is eye the eggs up, and we would raise ‘em. There’s a little creek that runs behi—behind my house. And you need seven to ten gallons a minute to, to be able to raise baby fish in it. And the first year that I got eggs from ‘em, I raised 225,000 babies by myself. So it took like four hours every day of taking care of the eggs. But then I had to get all the people I knew in town when we had to go let ‘em go, ‘cause it was just too, too overwhelming, ‘cause when they eye up there, they, you, you have to put them in the water when the egg stack is still a little bit showing red so they still have some food ‘til they figure out how to eat. And, ah, so you have to let ‘em go at a certain time. But then after that I, I, then I went down to 125,000 the next year, then I just went to 80,000 every year. And, the hatcheries, that’s what they raise now, is about, ah, maybe 100,000 fish. Or, or—that they let go—i—in the rivers here, so. I, I, I haven’t figured out the reason for it, but they don’t want any more, they don’t want 	   2	  any more hatchery fish. They think that they have wild fish, but they’re all the same thing. That’s, that’s one of the, hardest things for me to swallow. That, I mean they used to bring fish up here in milk jugs. You know these old metal milk cans from the Siletz River and put ‘em in here. Ah, that’s how farmers got some cert—certain kinds of fish started here. But, one—that’s one thing that killed us for a lot of years was the Wild Fish Policy. Until they finally found out genetically they’re exactly the same. I mean there’s, there’s no difference. But they figure they—if they plant too many they’ll, overtake the pure strain, which they don’t have in the first place so, that’s a—. If it goes out to the ocean—well all the ones I let go, if they made it to the ocean and then they came back to the c—the creeks, well then they consider those wild fish. So they’re—all the ones I let go, so that’s 500,000 fish, they’re all wild fish now. And I still walk up Horn Creek once in a while and find silvers in it, so. And I haven’t had STEP fi—fish for gosh I don’t know 15 years, 20 years. It’s been a long time.   NOTES: 1Jim Allen began dory fishing in 1968. 2Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program 

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