SUQUAMISH — With a swish of the tail and a strong desire to spawn, chum salmon are making their way back to the creeks and streams of their conception. It’s an annual ritual to populate the next generation, and it brings the salmon back to the North End every fall.

With tides and currents helping the chum through the last leg of their long journey, Grover’s Creek Hatchery workers and the Kitsap Poggie Club are busy harvesting salmon eggs and milt.

“We’re out here doing this every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said hatchery manager Mike Huff. The team of workers and volunteers, made up of local residents and Poggies — a conservation group aimed at the propagation and perpetuation of salmon — catch the fish, kill them, then collect reproductive materials. Dressed in waders and rain slickers, hatchery workers are braving the Northwest fall weather harvesting fish.

It’s not always easy. And the run, which started Oct. 18, has dwindled since the initial burst of salmon, Huff said.

The quick decline is abnormal, but even so, it marks the second year in a row it has occurred. About 2,600 chum were caught in hatchery waters during the first weeks of this year’s run, but numbers have dropped since, and concerns are growing, Huff said.

In 2004, Cowling Hatchery, which works in conjunction with Grover’s Creek Hatchery, had 8,909 chum return. In 2005, only 993 made it back to the neighboring Cowling Hatchery. To date this year, 2,760 chum have gone through Grover’s Creek.

“These are our 3-year-olds that are coming through right now,” Huff said of the chum being caught. “Next year, we’ll have a mix of 3- and 4-year-olds, and there should, hopefully, be more of them.”

To offset dwindling numbers, the hatchery is doing what it has always done — producing smelt, or baby salmon, and releasing them into Grover’s Creek to make the journey out to sea. Once the chum return, the females’ bellies are slit, and their eggs are collected and fertilized to keep the cycle going.

The process is not as messy as one might imagine.

Fish pathologist and virologist Marcia House was at the site Wednesday morning testing incoming female chum for different viral infections.

“We check for viruses before (the volunteers) slit the stomach and take the eggs,” she said. This helps scientists determine if the fish are being affected by viruses, or if new diseases are killing off the fish.

After the test is administered, the eggs are removed, and through a delicate process involving baking soda, iodine and water, are fertilized. Then, the waiting process begins for them to hatch and grow.

Some eggs are distributed to schools in the area for classrooms to the life cycle of salmon.

“We’re taking 200 eggs to Sunnyslope Elementary School, to be put in the school’s aquarium,” said Kitsap Poggie Club President Ray Frederick. The club not only assists with harvesting eggs, but disperses them to schools for educational purposes. “We’ll also take fish, about two million, out to Gorst. We help feed them until they’re ready to be released.”

Poggies and workers weren’t the only salmon hopefuls showing up to the hatchery Wednesday morning. Many local residents frequent the fish catches three days a week to take their pick of the free fish. After the sperm and eggs are taken from the fish, they are given out to the public for free, Huff said. Anyone hoping for a salmon dinner or smoked salmon can show up at 9 a.m. until Dec. 1, when the run ends.