PROJECT GOAL:

The primary project goal is to provide a captive broodstock to preserve the unique genetics of Snake River Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka).  These traits include the ability to swim further inland (900 miles) and climb to a higher altitude (6,548 feet) than any other Sockeye Salmon in the world.  The population was listed as Endangered, under the United States Endangered Species Act, as it is the only remaining remnant of anadromous Sockeye Salmon in the Snake River Basin (92,960 square miles) and it was in danger of extinction (16 ocean-returning fish from 1991-1996).  Having stabilized the population in captivity, the project now focuses on its secondary goal of producing fish for recovering the population in its natural habitat.

The Salmon Subbasin Plan includes these future goals for Redfish Lake Sockeye:
• Natural spawning component of 2,000 adults, based on the NOAA Fisheries interim abundance de-listing criteria.
• Long-term return of 8,000–44,500 adults, based on management plans.
• For FY 2021 produce up to 1,000 maturing adults that can be released to spawn naturally or used to produce up to 600,000 eyed eggs for transfer to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game smolt production facility at Springfield, Idaho.

BACKGROUND:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), in partnership with Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) has been maintaining U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Snake River Sockeye Salmon from Redfish Lake, Idaho in a captive broodstock program since 1991.  Captive broodstocks are a form of artificial propagation where fish are cultured in captivity for most or all of their life cycle.  These programs provide a safety net to prevent populations from going extinct.  Captive broodstock programs generate much higher egg-to-spawner survival (usually > 50%) than occurs in nature (usually < 0.2 %).  This higher in-culture survival of captive broodstock salmon enables them to produce a large number of eggs, fry, and smolts per generation for use in restoration programs.  This large number of progeny per generation is being used by the program to assist in the recovery of ESA listed Snake River Sockeye Salmon.

In the Salmon Subbasin Summary, federal, state, and tribal agencies repeatedly call for artificial production programs, like the Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon captive-broodstock program, to meet goals and objectives (Section 5.2, Fisheries Needs 14 and 15).  The continuation of current programs, such as the Redfish Lake sockeye salmon captive broodstock program, is also a required reasonable and prudent action (Item 177) in the NOAA Fisheries 2000 FCRPS Biological Opinion, an Updated Proposed Action (Hatchery UPA 13) in the 2004 Biological Opinion on Remand (Sections 6.14.2.3 and 9.3), RPA 41 of the 2008 FCRPS Biological Opinion.  The 2019 FSCRPS Biological Opinion (section 1.3.2.1) calls for continued funding of the Snake River Sockeye Salmon hatchery operations as a required conservation and safety net hatchery action.  In addition, the implementation and refinement of captive broodstocks for the recovery of Snake River sockeye salmon have been identified as priorities in the 1994 Northwest Power Planning Council's (NWPPC) Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (7.4A.1-3), are part of the overarching and regional objectives of the 2000 NWPPC Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, and are priorities described in the 2015 NOAA Fisheries Recovery Plan for Snake River salmon.

Between 1991 and 2020, NOAA Fisheries has captively-reared the progeny of Sockeye Salmon that returned to Redfish Lake.  Captive propagation of these fish from fall 1994 through 2020 has resulted in thousands of prespawning adults; hundreds of thousands of eyed eggs; and thousands of juveniles being provided to IDFG for release to Stanley Basin lakes.  In addition, NOAA has provided millions of eyed eggs for grow out in smolt production actions designed to speed population recovery.  In upcoming years, the cooperative NOAA Fisheries/IDFG Redfish Lake captive- broodstock program should continue to provide large numbers of animals for use in recovery efforts.  NOAA Fisheries feels that continuation of the cooperative captive broodstock program is imperative to the recovery of Snake River Sockeye Salmon (NMFS 2015).

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

Because of the critically low naturally produced population size of Redfish Lake sockeye salmon, captive-broodstocks appear to offer the only hope to maintain the species while the recovery plan is being implemented.  The maintenance of geographically separate captive brood populations at Eagle, Idaho and Manchester-Burley, Washington will remain a key factor in reducing the risk of catastrophic loss of the Redfish Lake sockeye salmon gene pool from mechanical failure, human error, or disease.   The NOAA-Fisheries captive-broodstock project expects to produce up to 1,000 maturing fish during the current contract cycle.  It is anticipated the project will supply up to 600,000 eyed eggs for use in the smolt production programs during this contract cycle.  During this contract cycle the project will continue to maintain at least 1,000 fish from each of three broodyears in the safety net for this ESA listed stock.  In aggregate, these actions will continue to prevent the extinction of Snake River Sockeye salmon and produce fish for release in the rebuilding of this ESA listed species.