Small Lock Pumpout Completed

It is time for the annual inspection, cleaning, and maintenance of the small lock!

On March 13, the water remaining in the chamber was pumped out so the lower walls and floor are accessible.

The pumps for this operation are located underneath the Administration Building. If you peek in the basement windows, you may be able to see some of the plumbing for the pumps.

It takes about 4 hours to drain the small lock whereas the large lock (pictured left) requires about 10 hours to pump dry. See previous entries on the Large Lock Pump Out and More Pump Out Pictures.

Without unforeseen findings, the small lock re-opened to boat traffic by March 23.

See the Official Hiram M. Chittenden Locks page for the most current updates and information about the locks and the ship canal.

Next on the "to-do" list usually is installation of the smolt flumes on the spillway dam around April 16th and fish ladder cleaning in June.

Christmas Ships through the Locks Tomorrow

Check out the annual trip of the Christmas ships through the Ballard Locks tomorrow, 12/15/2010 around 8:10 PM, swinging around to Golden Gardens just after 9pm.

MyBallard.com: Christmas Ships to Sail Around Ballard

Last Free Concert at the Locks This Summer

We are nearing the end of the 21st year of free summer concerts at the Chittenden Locks!


Beginning in June and continuing through Labor Day, the concerts attracted thousands of listeners to the Locks to hear a wide variety of music- jazz to gospel, salsa to bagpipes-- along with flower shows and an antique car exhibit. Bicyclists stop to listen, couples dance on the grass, kids clap hands; everyone enjoys the music in the beautiful setting of the gardens.

Catch the last concert of the season tomorrow at the Locks!

Folding chairs are available at 1:30 p.m. (first come/first served basis) and the music begins at 2:00 p.m.

Monday, Labor Day, September 6 - Michael Clune/Sleep Til Noon Band

Come and enjoy!

Some great pics from other summer highlights, including the fuchsias and cars:

It's Silver Time!

Coho salmon are commonly called silvers because of their shiny appearance. The coho run usually starts in mid-August and will peak around the second week of September, it is the last of the 3 salmon species to use the Lake Washington Ship Canal fish ladder.

Adult coho average 6 to 12 pounds and are identified by the fine spots on their back and upper tail lobe. If you have difficulty telling a coho from a Chinook, look at their mouth--the coho will have pale color flesh along their gum line while the Chinook will have dark color flesh at the base of their teeth (hence, young Chinook are sometimes called ‘blackmouths.’)

Coho return to spawn in their natal stream when they are about 3 years old, like all salmon species, the males develop the very distinctive hooked upper jaw (called a kype) and teeth in order to fight for dominance in the spawning beds. Some of the coho run will be returning to the hatchery in Issaquah, others will spawn in the local creeks where they were hatched.

Coho are found along the Pacific coast from San Francisco to Alaska.

All Hail the Kings!

The Chinook salmon are beginning to arrive at the Locks fish ladder.

Commonly called ‘king’ salmon because they are the largest of the Pacific salmon species, they are about 36” long and average 15 to 20 pounds. Seeing them in the fish ladder viewing gallery they are easily distinguished from the sockeye by the spots on their back and tail (sockeye have no spots.) The Chinook will also be larger and sometime have an olive green sheen on their bodies. The run will peak around the second week of August.

About 80% of the Lake Washington Ship Canal Chinook run is returning to the hatchery in Issaquah, the other 20% of the run will return to whichever river or stream where they were hatched 3-5 years ago. Hatchery fish are identifiable by the absence of their adipose fin (the tiny fin in front of the tail;) this fin is clipped off in the hatchery before the fish is released. Wild Chinook salmon are on the Threatened Species List.

Chinook salmon range along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California and they are prized as both a commercial and as a sport fish.

Great Free Concerts at the Locks!

The weather finally cooperated for the concerts at the Ballard Locks last Weekend. On Sunday, The Microsoft Orchestra treated the crowd of over 300 people to a couple of sets playing under the grand red oak trees. The selection included lots of classics, such as Gershwin and Sousa, as well as a new score of music featured in the video game Halo.

Check out next weekend's music schedule for Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, July 3 from 2-4 pm,Dissonance Jazz Combo will play. Sunday, Independence Day, the Seattle Civic Band will play some stirring marching music from 2-3 pm.

There will be lots more free music at the Ballard Locks all summer!

See the previous post or check out the most up-to-date schedule at the USACE events page.

Bagpipes on Sunday

Ballard offered up real Scottish weather for the Elliott Bay Bagpipe Band concert at the Locks last Sunday. A small, hardy audience braved the 'highland mist' to hear the band's annual Father's Day performance.

More free concerts to come!

See the previous post or USACE events page.

Fish Ladder is Open! Sockeye are Swimming!

A source at the Ballard Locks has informed us that the fish ladder is open and sockeye salmon are swimming upstream.

Pictures and more words coming soon...

Spring Cleaning: Preparing the Fish Ladder for Salmon!

We're spring cleaning & getting ready for guests--the salmon are coming!

The fish ladder at the Chittenden Locks will be closed May 24-June 4 for annual cleaning, inspection and maintenance; the fish viewing gallery will be closed to the public during this time.

There actually was a fish ladder constructed in 1917 with the spillway dam; it was very primitive as we didn't know much about salmon migration in those days. The ladder was not very effective and many salmon moved upstream through the locks and were injured by boats and propellers or by hitting the barnacle-encrusted walls and gates.

In 1976 the Corps of Engineers completely rebuilt the ladder, increasing the number of weirs (steps, or waterfalls) from 10 to 21, and increasing the flow of water. The rush of water out of the base of the ladder attracts the salmon away from the locks, as salmon instinctively know to go against the flow to trace their way back to their natal stream. The smell and taste of their home stream in genetically imprinted while they are young and they follow that unique smell/taste back upstream to spawn.

Moving quickly up the waterfalls the salmon jump each step or swim through tunnel-like openings between each weir. Weir 18 of the ladder was elongated to make the fish viewing gallery possible; here the salmon often spend a few hours resting and acclimating to fresh water before continuing their journey upstream.

The sockeye salmon is the first salmon species to return to the Lake Washington Ship Canal each year, the early ones usually show up around mid-June and the run normally peaks in early July. The word sockeye is a corruption of "sukkai", the name for the fish used by the Native Peoples of southern British Columbia.

Chinook (king) and Coho (silver) salmon runs follow during the summer months.

Check back often for more information and updates on the salmon runs at the Chittenden Locks!

All photos courtesy of USACE/Historical Collection Lake Washington Ship Canal

Smoltificatious!

Ever wonder what those big white metal tubes were on the spillway dam at the Locks? Read on.

The Corps of Engineers has installed those tubes; they are smolt flumes designed to help juvenile salmon safely bypass the Locks on their migration out to the ocean.

Studies had shown that smolts (juvenile salmon) were having a difficult time going through the Locks, which is their only passageway from the Lake Washington basin out to Puget Sound. Fish would get injured or killed when pulled into the filling tunnels or going over the spillway dam. In 1995 a prototype flume was installed to determine their feasibility, when deemed successful the current models were built at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and installed in May 2000.

The 4 flumes are different sizes to better regulate the outflow of water from the freshwater lakes. The narrow outer ends of the tubes contain an electronic screen to read the PIT tags that are implanted in some of the smolts. PIT is "passive integrated transponder," a microchip type of tracking device.

Standing on the spillway dam late April to early July you may see dozens of small (4"-6") fish shooting out of the flumes with the water, these are the sockeye, chinook and coho smolts headed out to the ocean. What looks to us like a dizzying fall is "just another waterfall" to a smolt and is actually safer than going through the Locks. The cords strung across the spill basin help increase smolt survival by detering seagulls from diving down to feast on the young fish. The smolts remain in the lower basin area for a few weeks acclimating, feeding and growing before they continue their journey to the Pacific.

The term smolt comes from the word "smoltification" which is the biological process the juvenile fish go through which enables them to make the transition from fresh to salt water.

For more info, check out the USACE release on the installation of the smolt flumes.

Note: The fish ladder will be closed June 1-11 for its annual cleaning in preparation for the return of the salmon. Stay tuned!

Pump Out: The Small Lock's Turn

If you are meandering through the Chittenden Locks next week you'll see an amazing sight.

The small lock will be empty! No, they didn't forget to pay the water bill--it is time for the annual inspection, cleaning, and maintenance of the small lock!

Starting at low tide on March 8, the water remaining in the chamber will be pumped out so the lower walls and floor are accessible.

The pumps for this operation are located underneath the Administration Building. If you peek in the basement windows, you may be able to see some of the plumbing for the pumps.

It takes about 4 hours to drain the small lock whereas the large lock (pictured left) requires about 10 hours to pump dry. See previous entries on the Large Lock Pump Out and More Pump Out Pictures.

Barring unforeseen findings, the small lock is scheduled to re-open to boat traffic by March 20.

For current information about the Lake Washington Ship Canal, check out the information from the USACE Seattle District.

Next on the "to-do" list is installation of the smolt flumes on the spillway dam in April and fish ladder cleaning in June.

Christmas Ships through the Locks Tonight, December 15

Tonight the Christmas Ships will be locking through between 8:10 and 8:30, then proceeding on towards Golden Gardens.

The grounds are open until 9pm, so throw on your rain gear & come watch them go through!