FY 2012 Ongoing Dungeness and Straits Streams Stock Assessments

The project continued to provide support for ongoing collection and assessment of data on critical stocks in the Dungeness River and selected streams by carrying out the tasks below, which are organized according to worktypes.
1) Salmonid smolt or fry monitoring: Continued to trap/release coho, steelhead and cutthroat smolts during downstream migration in Dungeness River, Matriotti Creek, Jimmycomelately Creek, Bell Creek, McDonald Creek, and Siebert Creek worksites to measure productivity of sampled streams. Staff completed a smolt trap report for which compiled and analyzed 2013 smolt trap data. Staff used FY2013 funding to install traps for the 2015 season in mid-April, 2015.
Field staff also began spot-checking certain ditches when they noticed fish in caught in the valley’s irrigation system. Staff documented such fish sightings and reported the problem to WDFW.
The Dungeness River and Matriotti Creek worksites also included our continued juvenile monitoring consisting of utilizing temporary marks, using fin clips of the upper and lower caudal fin lobe applied on coho and steelhead smolts. These marks were recaptured in downstream traps to assist in the development of population estimates. Data was shared with WDFW for production estimates: Dungeness Wild Coho = 35,839 smolts; Wild Steelhead = 13,167.
The Tribe provided NWIFC a tour of one of the smolt traps (June 2014), as well as some data summary and map handouts.
2) Redd counts: Redd counts occurred as part of spawning ground surveys and population estimates for Coho and Steelhead in the Dungeness River composite worksite (main stem Dungeness and Greywolf River, as well as tributaries: Hurd Creek, Canyon Creek, Beebe Creek). The field effort included flagging, recording count, timing and GPS locations.
This work occurred in conjunction with Tasks 3 (adult population monitoring) and Task 4 (carcass counts). Unfortunately, a series of high water events and persistent high water throughout the 2014 survey season prevented staff from safely completing the main-stem surveys, thus Coho escapement data was incomplete. However, Coho data was collected on Beebe and Hurd Creeks during the regularly scheduled chum surveys. However, the Tribe was able to start the 2015 season much earlier (February 2015, as opposed to a normal start month of May for steelhead surveys) than usual due to 2015 low flows/drought conditions. Further information is described in Project 2015-JSKT-02.
Additionally, the Tribe was able to assist WDFW with their Coho surveys in Siebert, McDonald and Jimmycomelately Creeks during the later potion of the Coho run.
While WDFW is the lead on Chinook surveys, tribal staff also conducted redd counts of Chinook during the Coho and chum surveys, as supplemental information for our continuing analysis of the Chinook Supplementation Program, and to estimate spawning rates in the Dungeness River.
3) Adult population monitoring: Live adult counts were conducted for Chum in conjunction with spawning ground surveys (Task 2) and carcass counts (Task 4), in the Dungeness River worksite, including tributaries (Beebe and Hurd Creek). The live and carcass counts help with estimating total spawners.
4) Carcass counts: Carcass counts of Coho and Chum occurred in conjunction with spawning ground surveys (Task 2) and live adult counts (Task 3) at the Dungeness River worksite, including tributaries (Beebe, Hurd, Canyon, Greywolf). Scale samples were taken from chum carcasses encountered during the surveys, and forwarded to WDFW for age analysis (using non-project funds). All chum data was forwarded to WDFW for forecasting and escapement estimate calculations.

Stock assessments help co-managers and biologists better understand the status of salmonids in the Dungeness Watershed, and identify key riparian areas for protection, timing of out-migration related to other stocks, etc. The marking project (which makes use of temporary marks – fin clips of the upper or lower caudal fin lobe) allows for a highly accurate estimate of the total number of naturally produced coho and steelhead in the Dungeness River system, a key parameter in our efforts to properly manage these species locally and to assess key stock productivity questions. Assessment of steelhead data is needed to understand recovery needs for this species. Redd surveys help assess number of spawners, as well as habitat conditions.