SEQUIM — With the annual Kids Fishing Day likely delayed to late September or early October, organizers have at least one option percolating while another might be floating away.
Members of the North Olympic Peninsula chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers planned to continue their annual event in cooperation with the city of Sequim and state Department of Fish and Wildlife on May 19, but a “perfect storm” hit the Water Reclamation Demonstration Site holding pond in Carrie Blake Community Park, they said.
“With a black plastic pond liner and algae growing, its absorbs even more heat,” said Dave Croonquist, a board member of the Anglers.
Two years in a row, hundreds of fish have died due to high temperatures in the pond.
Croonquist said a test plant of rainbow trout was done May 14 and soon thereafter about 200 fish died.
Last year, organizers used a large diesel pump to keep water moving and combat the heat and prior to this year’s event Sequim city staff inserted a pipe to add more oxygen to the water.
David Garlington, Sequim Public Works director, previously said the pond was intended for irrigation storage and fish weren’t considered in its original design.
“Unfortunately, it’s not deep enough to stay cool when we get hot weather,” he said.
Last October, city officials discussed moving the fishing day to the larger pond connected to Bell Creek by the Sequim Dog Park but Garlington said that option isn’t looking as viable as it once did.
“It’s hydraulically connected to Bell Creek and we’d have to put in fish screens to keep them and other fish [salmon] from entering the creek or vice-versa into the pond,” he said.
“The fish planted can’t reproduce, but what they can do is go downstream and feast on younger fish that we don’t want them to eat. So, if we do ever get to using that pond we’ve got some of these issues to overcome.”
Pete Tjemsland, Sequim utilities manager, said moving the fish to the larger pond could cost at least hundreds of thousands of dollars and need approval from multiple agencies.
The new pipeline into the holding pond cost about $10,000, he said.
City staff and Anglers continue to discuss the idea of deepening the current reclamation pond.
“We would support any efforts made to increase the size of the pond,” Croonquist said.
“Bigger and deeper would be better for the fish. It’s not an inexpensive project, but we’re working with them to see what can be done.”
Previously, Anglers and city staff found deepening the pond cost-prohibitive.
City staff confirmed the project could be extensive and no recent efforts have gone toward applying for grants to help deepen the pond.
Annually, the fish are donated by Fish and Wildlife and the Anglers pay for food at Hurd Creek hatchery where about 3,000 trout are raised.
Croonquist said 2,500 rainbow trout remain at the hatchery on a maintenance diet for the Kids Fishing Day this fall.
The club is readying thousands more for the 2019 event, too.
But when next year’s Fishing Day happens may change.
“We may consider moving the day to fight the warmer weather,” Croonquist said. “It seems more often than not we get a spate of warm weather in late April, early May.”
“We’re just extremely disappointed it didn’t happen this year,” he said.
“We anticipate a fun weekend in September or October.”
For more information on the pond, visit www.sequim wa.gov or call 683-4139.
For more about Kids Fishing Day, visit www.psanopc.org/ or call Croonquist at 360-582-1370.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
