Union River Fish In Fish Out Program

Final Project Description:
Over the course of this grant (#20-1163 MON: 10/1/2020 to 12/31/2022) the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group (HCSEG) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have partnered to perform an assessment of Union River Summer Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) juvenile out migrants and returning adult spawners. This project has been named the Union River Fish In Fish Out Project.

Juvenile out-migrant assessment (Fish Out phase):

Utilizing volunteers, interns, and a rotary screw trap HCSEG biologist, Clayton W. David, accomplished monitoring the juvenile chum out migration for two seasons: from December 2020 through May 2021 and again from December 2021 through May 2022. The goals of this project were to obtain juvenile summer and fall chum salmon abundance, out migration timing, and summer chum salmon productivity and freshwater survival estimates. Objectives for this assessment were accomplished through daily trap checks to identify and count all species, genetic sampling, and abundance calculations based on a mark/recapture protocol (see Study Plan attached in PRISM). Each out-migration season 380 genetic samples were collected for analysis by the WDFW genetic lab. A spreadsheet, 2018-22 Union FW SAR.xls, containing all productivity data and timing graphs has been uploaded to PRISM for reference. In addition, 20-1163 MON Final Report for PRISM.pdf has been uploaded to PRISM, which contains everything in the Final Project Description and Final Project Narrative and includes all figures and tables.

2020-21 season: The rotary screw trap data resulted in an estimate of 27,188 ± 5,497 juvenile summer chum salmon that out migrated from the Union River based on DNA analysis and a calculated trapping efficiency of 28.9%. The Coefficient of Variance (ratio of standard deviation to the mean) was 10.32%. Timing estimates showed the summer chum salmon out migration began in December and continued until early March. Fall chum salmon began in mid-February and continued into late May. The summer chum salmon freshwater survival rate was calculated to be 1.6%.

2021-22 season: The rotary screw trap data resulted in an estimate of 110,507 ± 17,625 juvenile summer chum salmon that out migrated from the Union River based on DNA analysis and a calculated trapping efficiency of 26.6%. The Coefficient of Variance (ratio of standard deviation to the mean) was 8.14%. Timing estimates showed the summer chum salmon out migration began in December and continued until mid-March. Fall Chum Salmon began in mid-February and continued late April and early May. The summer chum salmon freshwater survival rate was calculated to be 1.4%.

Volunteer Involvement:
One of the objectives for this project was to utilize intern and volunteer labor to install/remove the rotary screw trap, perform daily trap checks, and assist with fish sampling protocols. Each year, after the trap was installed and training was completed, interns and volunteers conducted the majority of the daily trap checks to count and identify all species within the trap and sample fish based upon our protocols. During the 2020-21 season, volunteers accounted for 948.0 hours; during 2021-22 season, volunteers accounted for 794.5 hours. Volunteer hours for both seasons’ total 1,742.5 hours.

Adult spawning assessment (Fish In phase):
Utilizing volunteers, interns, and a temporary weir trap HCSEG biologist, Clayton W. David, accomplished monitoring the adult summer chum return for three seasons: from August 15, 2020-October 15, 2020, from August 15, 2021-October 15, 2021, and from August 15, 2022-October 15, 2022.

2020 season: The adult weir trap was installed on August 14th and trapping began on the 15th; the trap was removed on October 16, 2020. In total we counted 1,777 summer chum salmon. As with each year the trap was manned 24/7 from August 15th - October 15th. This was the first year w

to provide accurate accounts of salmon adults returning to the Union River, and out-migrating juveniles