57970

2010-050-00 EXP TUCANNON STEELHEAD ENDEMIC STOCK EVALUATION

7/1/2012

6/30/2013

157. Collect/Generate/Validate Field and Lab Data

Work Element Usage Report

G: 157 - Sampling adult steelhead at Tucannon Fish Hatchery

All hatchery supplementation smolts are currently released above the Tucannon FH adult trap. While not all adults will return to the upper basin, it is critical to accurately document the number of hatchery and natural origin fish that are captured and released above the Tucannon FH trap for natural spawning in the river. Until the last two years, the upper Tucannon River (above the Tucannon FH trap) has had very little escapement of summer steelhead. Escapement over the last two years has been increased due to larger returns. However, the returns of hatchery steelhead to the upper basin have far exceeded the number of natural origin fish. While this may be acceptable in the short term - while we attempt to rebuild the natural production of summer steelhead in the upper basin - in the long term, having a greater number of hatchery origin fish released into the upper basin may not be acceptable.

This project will provide additional staff that will assist Tucannon FH staff on a daily basis during the steelhead return (March to May) to the Tucannon FH. Tucannon FH staff operate the weir/trap on a daily basis. In the past, all captured fish were counted, collected for broodstock or passed upstream, without non-endemic fish being removed from the group allowed to pass upstream. Occasionally, samples (scales for aging) were being collected per biological staff requests. However, other hatchery duties and tasks which are necessary during the same time frame have made continued collection of the biological samples a large burden on existing Tucannon FH staff. Monitoring and evaluation metrics (as proposed under this work element) will create an even larger burden on hatchery staff. Additional staff time is needed for the increased collection of biological samples and tagging.

During daily trap checks, project staff will record number of fish captured (by origin), those passed upstream or collected for broodstock. In addition, project staff will collect scales from all unmarked ("natural origin") summer steelhead throughout the run. Scale samples are collected for age determination and brood year run reconstruction purposes, which is critical piece of information that is needed to determine a recruits:spawner relationship. Scales can also be used for origin determination when there is a question. Since our supplementation hatchery fish are not externally marked, and sometimes lose the CWT, scale samples should provide definitive proof of origin, thereby, the accounting of hatchery and natural origin fish at the trap will be more accurate. WDFW will also collect a small piece of tissue (fin clip) from a portion of the run for DNA analysis. [Note: this sample size needs to be quantified. A numerical value for DNA sampling size was not available at the time of SOW development]

In addition to scales and tissue sampling, project staff will also be scanning all fish for PIT tags, inserting floy tags in all fish passed upstream of the trap for mark/site recapture observations while doing spawning ground surveys (see additional work element) in the upper basin. Other data such as sex, fork length, external or internal mark/tags, injuries, etc... will also be recorded for each fish.

Note: Since the Tucannon River summer steelhead have been intermixed with an out-of-basin hatchery steelhead stock since the mid-1980's, genetic profiling may be important as this program expands the new hatchery broodstock and hatchery production in the river. However, this project is not proposing any DNA analysis. Other entities have expressed interest in the genetic profile of Tucannon River summer steelhead, and how they relate to other steelhead populations within the Snake River Basin.

Assist Tucannon FH staff in trap sampling; generate data that describes the characteristics of the adult return of summer steelhead to the Tucannon FH adult trap (which will be used to describe the run to the entire river). Metrics to be reported include the total number of male and female steelhead trapped by origin, number of males and females collected for broodstock by origin, number of males and females passed upstream by origin, number of fish floy-tagged by origin, number of scales or tissue samples collected by origin, age determination by sex and origin, and size of fish by sex and origin.

$19,650

13.90%

07/01/2012

06/30/2013

06/30/2013

Concluded

n/a

n/a

Recurring