Spring Chinook Supplementation

Under this project 10,000 BY22 wild juvenile Spring Chinook were PIT tagged and raised at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery (WSNFH). A total of 46,600 juvenile Spring Chinooks were released into the upper Warm Springs River near Schoolie. Necessary supplies (Bio-Mark trays ,PIT tags and other supplies) were purchased to do the tasks of this project and salaries paid for staff time.



Due to fish disease issues and unforeseen mortality events of adults and juveniles at the WSNFH and staff shortages, the WST was not able to PIT tag as many Spring Chinook as planned. Due to a power pump failure at the WSNFH in 2024 there was a significant fish loss and stressing of fish so the WST did not PIT tag any of those fish to prevent further mortality.



Due to a clinical outbreak of BKD during the time frame that PIT tagging is normally done, the WST decided not to PIT tag any BY20 wild ChS juveniles since the hatchery ChS juveniles were having a higher than normal percentage of mortalities due to the BKD.



Monitoring activities still were conducted during the duration of this project and repairs were done to the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 equipment.



Results under this project will still add to the supplementation plan and help bolster the wild Spring Chinook Spawning success, increasing outmigration of Warm Springs River Spring chinook. Strengthened by other ongoing habitat and adult transportation projects in this basin increased natural production of spring Chinook in the Warm Springs River will occur hopefully exceeding the 1000 adult fish return goal upstream of the WSNFH.

This supplementation plan will help bolster the wild spring Chinook Spawning success, by increasing Warm Springs River spring Chinook outmigrants. Measurable outcomes are increased smolt production from the eggs collected from wild brood, and survival measured by PIT arrays in the Warms Spring River and PIT arrays further downstream in the Deschutes and Columbia basins. The ultimate measure is future increases in returning adults with the goal of meeting or exceeding of the 1,000 adult Chinook return upstream of the WSNFH.