Angling for Answers: Nooksack Early Chinook Origins

This funding supported fieldwork for the project. LNR staff, working with contracted Lummi fishers, conducted tangle net fishing operations 22 times. The proposed sampling schedule was 2 days a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) but was adaptive depending on catches of natural origin (NOR) Chinook. A total of 268 Chinook were caught on the tangle net; 216 were harvested and 52 were released. All adipose-clipped Chinook and coded wire tagged (CWT) Chinook less than 65 cm were retained and a full workup of samples were taken (length, weight, scales, otolith, genetic, and CWT). Sample data was compiled and used for various reporting needs.

This funding to run to the tangle net, in conjunction with the previously funded radio tag study, will provide a better understanding of in-river spatial and temporal distribution, post-release tangle net survival and sources of in-river pre-spawn mortality of early Chinook.

The genetic stock composition will provide a better understanding of spawn timing, survival and pre-spawn mortality of North Fork early Chinook spawning in the South Fork and South Fork early Chinook spawning in the North Fork. Data gathered from this project will directly benefit the Nooksack Indian Tribe and WDFW. Improving hatchery survival of these key recovery programs will provide more naturally spawning fish to boost depressed natural-origin populations.