Photo By Kimberly Lopes | 21 Seattle District teammates headed deep into the filling tunnels of the large lock...... read more read more
For salmon, migration is already a dangerous, perilous journey. At the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, locally known in Seattle as the Ballard Locks, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Seattle District works to make their journey a little safer.
Every year, Seattle District employees volunteer their time to aid safe salmon migration by heading into the large lock’s culverts to scrape barnacles from the walls. These two culverts are 800 feet long, 8 feet wide and 14 feet tall, running the entire length of the large lock. Over the course of a year, barnacles accumulate and line the walls on all sides of the culvert. For migrating juvenile salmon, these sharp barnacles can scrape and injure the fish as they pass through. Endangered Species Act fish such as Chinook and steelhead also use these culverts to journey upstream.
“Barnacle scraping is one of those behind-the-scenes efforts that protects both our infrastructure and the fish that move through it,” said Andy Crowe, Chittenden Locks Operating Project Manager. “ At Lake Washington Ship Canal, removing barnacles ensures cleaner surfaces that reduce injury risk to fish in high-velocity water, while also keeping our locks running safely and efficiently.”
Scraping barnacles is no small job—this year, it took a team of 21 volunteers nearly 7 hours to scrape down the walls of both culverts. Each volunteer was equipped with a freshly sharpened scraper, waterproof boots and jackets, earplugs and a hard hat with a face shield.
The task is simple but far from easy. With the barnacles cemented firmly to the chamber walls, removing them requires significant exertion and is a full-body workout. Proper training, gear and safety equipment are essential to protect volunteers from sharp tools, flying barnacles and unsafe sound levels.
“Sometimes the simplest ways are the best ways,” said Mary Bacon, Seattle District biologist and volunteer. “It is physical and exhausting work, but totally worth it and proof of the Army Corps’ commitment to the conservation and continued existence of endangered species.”
Barnacle scraping typically takes place in the fall, after the peak of the salmon run, while the large lock is dewatered and emptied for maintenance. To operate the large lock and remain in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, USACE is required to scrape barnacles. The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in consultation with USACE, made it a requirement to conduct annual scrapings to protect juvenile salmonids.
“We understand what barnacles can do to juvenile salmonids from research conducted by the Lake Washington Fisheries Co-Managers and USACE in the 1990s,” said Katie Whitlock, fisheries biologist at the Seattle District. “It is important to scrape barnacles because if a juvenile salmon, called a smolt, is in the large lock filling culverts when water is moving through them, the smolt could be pulled along with the water and dragged against sharp barnacles that could injure or kill them.”
This year alone, over 28,000 Coho and 18,000 Chinook salmon passed through the fish ladder at the locks. As a barrier between the saltwater Puget Sound and the freshwater Lake Washington, the locks are a key part of the migration journey.
“It’s truly an all-hands effort,” said Crowe. “Our entire maintenance team and dedicated volunteers come together every year to make sure this essential work gets done for the community and the ecosystem we serve.”
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.03.2025 17:27 |
| Story ID: | 552863 |
| Location: | SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 9 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Scraping for Safe Passage: Inside the Chittenden Locks’ Annual Barnacle Scraping, by Kimberly Lopes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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