Reproductive success of hatchery chinook salmon in the Deschutes River, Washington Howard Fuss Hatchery Wild Interactions Team Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Acknowledgments HSRG for providing funding for staff to do spawning ground surveys and running the smolt trap. Crew of Tumwater Falls Hatchery (Mary Evans, Lee Pilon in particular) Squaxin Tribe, Tim Flint, Rich Lincoln, Rich Eltridge, Larry Phillips and Jay Hunter Pete Topping, Brant Boelts, Shona Bruce, Jeremy Graham, Jack Tipping, Lee Blankenship, Denette Aho and Tumwater Falls Park
Purpose Measure survival rates from egg to smolt stage of progeny of hatchery origin chinook Compare traits that effect fitness of this stock with other wild stocks such as emergence timing, diel migration, growth Compare smolt-to-adult survival differences of wild and hatchery chinook
Why Deschutes was chosen Stock has long history of artificial culture (introduced from Green River) Multiple introductions from other hatcheries, and mixture of stocks Mixture of rearing strategies, including fry, fingerling and yearling releases Little if any previous natural production 100% control of upstream fish passage Reasonable accessibility for spawning ground surveys and about 40 river miles of available spawning habitat Juvenile fish trapping operation in place for wild coho
Fishway completed Deschutes Coho 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Escapement Number Stocked (BY-3) 1999 1995 1991 1987 1983 1979 1975 1971 1967 1963 1959 1955 1951 1947 1,600,000 1,200,000 800,000 400,000 0
Methods Deschutes River Capitol Lake Fish were counted as they entered holding pond Green females were selected, measured and placed in transport pipe to river located above falls Scales were taken from spawned adults to determine age structure, and 50 females were chosen for fecundity determination *Survival determined by CWT and presence or absence of adipose fin
Results
Upstream 2000 1% 2,877 fish were passed upstream 1,068 females and 1,051 males used by hatchery 56% 1,614 1,146 43% Male Female Jacks
24% Upstream 2001 366 1% 1143 75% Males Females Jacks 1,530 fish passed upstream in 2001 Only 366 females 1,194 females and 1,136 males used for spawning
Upstream 2002 3% 2,523 fish passed upstream 1,120 females 44% 1,120 1,335 53% 1,036 females and 1,034 males (14 jacks) used for spawning Males Females Jacks
Age at Return 100% 2002 2001 2000 Age 3 Age 4 Age 5 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2000 2001 2002
Spawn Timing and Distribution
Spawn Timing Number of Redds 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 24- Sep 02- Oct 09- Oct 16- Oct 23- Oct Redds 00 Redds 01 Redds 02 Egg Take 00 Egg Take 01 Egg Take 02 29- Oct 05- Nov 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Thousands of Eggs
Redd Distribution by Redds / Mile 400 300 200 100 0 Reach 800 redds in 2000 349 redds in 2001 600 redds in 2002 2000 2001 2002 2 2.2-4.6-10.6-15.3-19.6-20.9-25- 26.6-4.5 10.5 15.2 19.5 20.8 25 26.5 28.5 River Mile
2002 spawning distribution by week
Spawner success 2000: 1,153 females upstream 2001: 369 females upstream 2002: 1,120 females upstream 800 redds (69%) 344 redds (93%) 600 redds (54%)
Deschutes Fecundity 5200 Average # eggs/female 5000 4800 4600 4400 4200 2000 2001 2002
Egg Deposition 2000: 4.17 million 2001: 1.6 million 2002: 3.2 million
Enumeration of juveniles and characterization of fitness characteristics
Trapping started in February each year Trapping ended July 16, 2001 and June 25 in 2002 Trap was not fished for 2-3 days following each hatchery release (5 total) Trap efficiency was 22-33%
Survival Estimates 2000 Brood 150,569 juvenile wild chinook were captured. Estimated 514,000 total juveniles survived to Capital Lake 12.3% survival from egg deposition to Capital Lake
Survival Estimates 2001 brood 7,100 juvenile wild chinook were captured. Estimated 63,000 total juveniles survived to Capital Lake 4.0 % survival from egg deposition to Capital Lake
Deschutes Flows during incubation period CFS 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 2000 2001 1500 1000 500 0 01-Oct 15-Oct 29-Oct 12-Nov 26-Nov 10-Dec 24-Dec
Fitness Traits Cutthroat bite marks
8000 6000 4000 2000 0 Diel Catch of juvenile chinook 2001 Day Night Night 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 24-Feb 3-Mar 10-Mar 17-Mar 24-Mar 31-Mar 7-Apr 14-Apr 21-Apr 28-Apr 5-May 12-May 3-Feb 10-Feb 17-Feb
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Deschutes Wild Chinook Growth Fork length 10-Jun 04-Feb 18-Feb 04-Mar 18-Mar 01-Apr 15-Apr 29-Apr 13-May 27-May 24-Jun 08-Jul Wild 01 Hatchery Wild 02
Hatchery and Wild fish comparison In June 2000 Hatchery Wild
Summary Adequate numbers of chinook were passed upstream in 2 of 3 broods Survival from egg deposition to the trap was 12.3% and 4% in first two broods Survival was influenced by flows and likely predation 84% of the fish were captured before May 1 and smaller than 50 mm in 2001 and 54% in 2002 Smolts were greater than 70 mm by mid-may Estimated total juvenile production to the trap was 512,397 in 2001 and 63,000 in 2002