Use of Hatchery Fish to Recolonize Historically Productive Habitat in the Upper Cowlitz River Basin

Transcription

1 Use of Hatchery Fish to Recolonize Historically Productive Habitat in the Upper Cowlitz River Basin John Serl Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife December 8, 2016

2 Reintroduction Cooperators Bonneville Power Administration Lewis County PUD Tacoma Power Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission USGS Columbia River Research Lab US Forest Service Friends of the Cowlitz Volunteers

3 Washington Idaho Oregon

4 Total Population Cowlitz River Historical Abundance ,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 Spring Chinook Fall Chinook Coho Steelhead Cutthroat Spawning Escapment Comercial Catch Sport Harvest

5 Mayfield Dam

6 Mossyrock Dam

7 Cowlitz Falls Dam 1994/1996

8 Cowlitz River Watershed Sub-basins Cowlitz River Watershed N Tilton River Upper Cowlitz River Lower Cowlitz River Cispus River Columbia River

9 Upper Cowlitz River Reintroduction 1980 s LCPUD Cowlitz Falls Dam Development BPA Power Purchase Agreement Friends of the Cowlitz Involvement Reintroduction began Tacoma Power involvement after 2004

10 Cowlitz Cowlitz River Watershed River Watershed Trap and Haul Cowlitz River N Mayfield Dam Barrier Dam Mossyrock Dam Cowlitz Falls Cispus River Columbia River

11 CFFF Fall 1996 CFFF December 1996

12 Stock Selection Spring Chinook Fall Chinook delayed Coho Late Winter Steelhead Early Winter Steelhead Summer Steelhead Cutthroat -???

13 Reintroduction Methods Fry/Fingerling releases Small planting truck, hose 5 gallon bucket Helicopter and fire bucket (Steelhead) Smolts Acclimate, ventral fin mark Hatchery Adults Release locations

14 Reintroduction Methods Fry/Fingerling releases Coho = 1,000,000/year Steelhead = 300,000/year Spring Chinook = 450,000/year Smolts Steelhead = 75,000/year Hatchery Adults As available

15 Upper Cowlitz Watershed Seeding Lessons Learned: Adults If you allow harvest, this will be the most popular with the public, can get hard to curtail! Utilizes the complete natural life cycle Release sites are hard to find and keep Un-imprinted fish will spawn near release sites

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17 Upper Cowlitz Watershed Seeding Lessons Learned: Smolts Need a secure location Lots of effort Good for imprinting to a specific area

18 Upper Cowlitz Watershed Seeding Lessons Learned: Juveniles Good for fish that overwinter Helicopter or bucketing fish can scatter plant a lot of locations Need to be marked to differentiate from natural production

19 Upper Cowlitz Watershed Seeding Juvenile supplementation ended after 2009 to focus on Natural Production Adult Supplementation using integrated fish for coho and steelhead Release Hatchery Spring Chinook Adults and Artificial Redds

20 Spring Chinook Artificial Redds or Now I Know Why Salmon Die After Spawning

21 Spring Chinook Artificial Redds Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery Spring Chinook Production was expected to double in 2011/2012 Few adults to seed system No time to permit RSI Winter snow made RSIs infeasible due to limited/no access

22 Spring Chinook Artificial Redds Objectives Produce juvenile spring Chinook migrants Produce fish imprinted to sites not being used Have fun

23 Artificial Redds Locations

24 Spring Chinook Artificial Redds First Year ,315,900 eggs planted 282 total artificial redds 144 NF Cispus River 38 Upper Cispus River 100 Skate Creek (Upper Cowlitz River)

25 Artificial Spring Chinook Redds 1,400,000 1,200,000 1,000, , , , ,000 0

26 Artificial Spring Chinook Redds

27 Redd Construction

28 North Fork Cispus

29 Skate Creek lateral bars

30 Construction

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32 Typical Artificial Redd

33 Results Non-invasive observations All redds appeared to persist Emerged sack fry at all sites Eggs outside of redds at all sites No noticeable quantities of dead eggs

34 Results

35 Integrated Hatchery Adult Releases Having your cake and eating it too

36 Upper Cowlitz Coho

37 Integrated Coho Production 100% Natural Origin Brood All marked AD Clip + CWT At least one generation in natural environment for every generation in hatchery Compensate for poor collection efficiency Supports fishery and recolonization

38 Adults Upper Cowlitz Coho Natural Hatchery Integrated

39 Questions?