Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On a recent Wednesday morning, four employees with Colorado Parks and Wildlife spawned kokanee at Lake Nighthorse, collecting and fertilizing eggs. By 9 a.m., they had processed about 50 fish, with many more waiting.
Kokanee salmon were introduced to Colorado from Washington in 1951 as a game fish. Unlike ocean-going sockeye, kokanee salmon spend their entire lives in freshwater. They live about three years before returning in the fall to spawn and die days later.
Each year since 1951, CPW collects about 10 million kokanee eggs statewide from nine reservoirs. Biologists fertilize the eggs and raise the fish in hatcheries until they reach fingerling size. The young fish are then released across Colorado. Three years later, many return to the same waters where they were stocked.
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Produced by Ziyi Xu
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On a recent Wednesday morning, four employees with Colorado Parks and Wildlife spawned kokanee at Lake Nighthorse, collecting and fertilizing eggs. By 9 a.m., they had processed about 50 fish, with many more waiting.
Kokanee salmon were introduced to Colorado from Washington in 1951 as a game fish. Unlike ocean-going sockeye, kokanee salmon spend their entire lives in freshwater. They live about three years before returning in the fall to spawn and die days later.
Each year since 1951, CPW collects about 10 million kokanee eggs statewide from nine reservoirs. Biologists fertilize the eggs and raise the fish in hatcheries until they reach fingerling size. The young fish are then released across Colorado. Three years later, many return to the same waters where they were stocked.
Read the complete story at rmpbs.org
Produced by Ziyi Xu
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: bit.ly/3zeF6Ch
------------------------------------------------------
Follow Rocky Mountain PBS on our other platforms, too.
• Newsletter: rmpbs.org/newsletter
• Facebook: facebook.com/rmpbs
• Instagram: instagram.com/rmpbs
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/rocky-mountain-pbs
