Little Port Walter Field Station
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The Little Port Walter (LPW)
Field Station is a primary research unit of Auke Bay Laboratory located
110 miles south of Juneau, Alaska, near the southeastern tip of Baranof
Island. LPW is the oldest year-round biological research station
in Alaska and has been host to a wide variety of fisheries research
projects since 1934. The station is on U.S.
Forest Service land in the Tongass National Forest and is
accessible only by boat or floatplane. Personnel stationed at LPW
range from a mid-winter low of 2 to a summertime high of 20 to 25
researchers and support staff, depending on the requirements of the
various experiments underway. LPW is located in an estuarine
environment adjacent to Chatham Strait near the open Gulf of
Alaska. Numerous nearby lakes and streams are available for
salmonid experimentation and the location is ideally suited for a broad
range of studies on Alaska's estuarrine and marine resources.
Research facilities include an experimental hatchery with an array of
freshwater and saltwater floating raceways and netpens served by a
controlled water source capable of delivering 900 gallons per
minute. Wet laboratories include an incubation room and a behavior
laboratory capable of detailed observation on species in fresh water,
salt water, or simulated intertidal environments. These facilities
are used to conduct a variety of fish rearing and controlled laboratory
studies, some of which can extend over a period of several years. Recent
and current studies at LPW include hatchery-wild
stock interactions of Chinook salmon from distinct genetic
lines, effects of crude oil contamination on survival
and homing of intertidal spawning pink salmon, ESA
recovery research for steelhead,
growth rates in marine corals, and behavior studies with juvenile
rockfish. Other research projects at LPW include cooperative programs
with:
University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG).
Little Port Walter comprises 11
buildings. The main building, built in the 1930s using Civilian
Conservation Corps labor and materials from an abandoned saltery, is a
three-story brick structure used as a dormitory/residence, laboratory,
and mess hall. Other facilities include the two wet-laboratories,
a marine dock and warehouse, generator and fuel storage buildings, wood
and metal shops, a conference room, a floating wet-lab and feed shed,
several residences for researchers and maintenance staff, and a
permanent concrete fish weir on nearby Sashin Creek, which flows into the
head of LPW Bay. This stream has natural runs of pink, chum, and coho salmon as well as Dolly Varden and steelhead. Experiments with Chinook salmon at LPW are based on hatchery runs
introduced from Southeast Alaska mainland streams. These fish are
not allowed into Sashin Creek because they are not part of the endemic
stream fauna.
See Data Sets,
Monitoring: Little Port Walter (LPW) for information
on 2004 Chinook salmon releases and recoveries.
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