Background - This project has two sibling contracts, One with the University of Washington for sample analysis and some data analysis and this one with NOAA Fisheries for project organization, implementation and the majority of data analysis.

Objective I. Hood River Spring Chinook Salmon Smolt Quality

The Hood River, Oregon Salmon Production Program is co-managed by the Warm Springs Tribe (WS) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) for supplementation of spring Chinook salmon in the Hood River system.  The current Master Plan for the Hood River Production Program (March 5, 2008 Draft) calls for a comparative hatchery release study designed to "provide co-managers with the best available information for determining a long term biologically sound and cost effective spring Chinook salmon production strategy for the Hood River Basin that balances harvest needs with ecological considerations".  Rearing facilities, both inside and outside the basin, are being evaluated for long-term use in the Hood River spring Chinook supplementation program.  The objective of this evaluation is to conduct a multi-year (2008-2018) comparative study of Hood River spring Chinook reared at three different hatchery facilities prior to being moved to the West Fork Hood River for final acclimation and release.  The facilities include, Round Butte Hatchery/Pelton Ladder (RBH) on the Deschutes River, OR; Columbia Gorge Hatchery (CGH) a.k.a. Carson National Hatchery on the Wind River, WA; Parkdale Fish Facility (PFF) on the Hood River, OR.  Each year, starting Fall 2008, returning adults will be collected in the Hood River, artificially spawned at the PFF, and gametes will be distributed to each of the respective hatchery facilities for long term-rearing to the parr-smolt stage.   Starting in Spring 2010 uniquely tagged juveniles from RBH and CGH were moved to the Moving Falls Acclimation Pond on the West Fork Hood River for acclimation and forced release in April.  The fish from the PFF are released from that site.  The Hood River Master Plan calls for monitoring fish health, size at release, specific growth rates, rates of precocious male maturation (age-2 minijacks, age-3 jacks) and ultimately smolt-to-adult returns (SAR's) for each brood year/release group.  SAR's for all adult year classes from all brood years are available starting in 2011 with final returns in 2015.   These data will be used to evaluate which hatchery facility/regime is optimum for future long-term implementation in the Hood River Supplementation program.

As part of the broader Revised Hood River Production Master Plan we are conducting the following Hood River Smolt Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Study.  The overall goals will be:

A.  Monitor spring growth and smolt development at all rearing sites.

B.  Provide comparative metrics of smolt quality between rearing sites.

Specifically, we will determine if differences in growth, smolt development and early male maturation, exist between Hood River spring Chinook salmon reared at RBH, PFF and CGH and subsequently released into the West Fork Hood River for three consecutive brood years (BY) 2008-2010 released in years 2010-2012. In addition, we will monitor Deschutes stock spring Chinook reared at RBH and released into the Deschutes River and Carson stock spring Chinook reared at CGH and released into the Wind River.  These measures will allow us to:

C.  Assess the effects on growth and smolt development of transferring fish from out of basin rearing facilities (RBH and CGH) to the acclimation release site at Moving Falls on the West Fork Hood River.  

These physiological/life-history indices will provide early, predictable and replicated comparative data, before the acquisition of full SAR's from 2011-2015, for evaluating the three rearing regimes.  In addition, these metrics are independent of any potential alteration in ocean conditions that can produce variation in SAR's that are unrelated to freshwater rearing.  However, once SAR's are obtained we will be able to:

D.  Correlate physiological indices of growth and smolting to SAR to evaluate key factors responsible for potential differences in survival between release groups

This will allow us to:

E.  Evaluate rearing practices with regard to A, B and C to recommend "best" rearing practices and a long term rearing strategy for the HRPP. Results will be available for managers in late-2012 with the completion of our final comparative physiology report proposed in this SOW.  Final correlational analysis of physiological indicators with SAR's (D) will be conducted as adults return from 2011-2015.

NOTE for FY 14:

For the FY 2014 SOW under this Objective I we will conduct data analysis, graphics and manuscript preparation of a second manuscript from this hatchery  evaluation project focused specifically on the differences between environmental and genetic effects on development:  Potential title: "Environmental and genetic effects on early male maturation of hatchery spring Chinook salmon from tributaries of the Columbia River basin.
As of the writing of this SOW, the Hood River, Oregon Production Program co-managers have made some programmatic decisions based on results from this project to focus Hood River spring Chinook salmon rearing at Pelton Ladder, Parkdale Fish Facility with potential for longer term in basin rearing at the recently completed Moving Falls Acclimation Facilty on the West Fork fo the Hood River.  Rearing of Hood River spring Chinook at Carson hatchery was discontinued.  Rearing and release strategies for the BY 2012 fish are being finalized at this time.  During this contract period we will conduct spring (pre-release) physiological evaluation (adiposity, smolt, minijack)  of each separate rearing group produced (Pelton Ladder, Parkdale, Moving Falls) in the Hood Program to help further refine the best strategy or combination of strategies for future production.


Objective II.  Hood River Steelhead Trout Residualism Monitoring

          Like spring Chinook salmon, steelhead trout display significant phenotypic plasticity in both the age of smolting and age of maturation.  Hatchery-reared steelhead may adopt one of three life history pathways after release: 1) smolt and migrate to sea 2) sexually mature and remain in freshwater and attempt to spawn naturally (primarily males), or 3) "residualize" as a non-smolting and non-maturing parr and delay migration or maturation 'decisions' until the subsequent year(s).   The objective of this work is to use a series of recently developed physiological indices to quantify residualism rates of the steelhead trout population supplemented in to the Hood River by WS and ODFW.  These fish are from Hood River natural origin brood stock reared at Oak Springs Hatchery on the Deschutes River, OR and released in to the Hood River in May of each spring.  After transfer of the fish from Oak Springs to the Hood River we will collect 300 fish and sample them for length, weight, condition factor, pituitary glands for measurement of mRNA levels of reproductive hormones, plasma for measurement of 11-ketotestosterone and gonad tissue for mRNA measurement of reproductive hormones and histological analysis.  Finally, we will collect gills for determination of Na+/K+-ATPase enzyme activity as an indicator of smoltification.  These indices will be examined in a multifactorial analysis to catagorize fish into thier respective life-histories.  These data will be used to help determine rates of residualism in Hood River steelhead and to potentially help modify rearing regimes for these fish to minimize residualism rates.  This work will be conducted with S1 steelhead over three consecutive brood years for the reasons outlined above: BY 2011-2013 released in 2012-2014.