Artificial Production/Supplementation IV

The focus of efforts enacted within this project changed somewhat relative to that described in the original project proposal. Specifically, much of this projects involvement in analysis of the use of hatchery supplementation to rebuild wild salmon populations was directed at producing the report on the ad hoc inter-agency Supplementation Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Workshop, held April 6-7, 2006, and on preparation for a second Workshop, scheduled to be held in early 2007. Writing of the manuscript summarizing results of tribal coho reintroduction/restoration programs proposed in the original project proposal was put on hold. Instead, this information will be incorporated into a more comprehensive report on efforts across the Columbia basin to reintroduce and restore populations of anadromous salmonids in general (coho, Chinook and steelhead). This review is being proposed as a product of the aforementioned 2007 Supplementation M&E Workshop. The grant pre-proposal, submitted to the PSC Southern Boundary Fund in the fall of 2006, for testing of a sex-specific DNA marker across Columbia basin Chinook populations was not funded and further work on this line of research has not been pursued. Additional tasks which arose since writing of the original project proposal, included: 1) production of the final report for a Southeast Sustainable Salmon Fund Project awarded to CRITFC, studying Mid-Columbia summer Chinook in the Methow River, and 2) collaboration with the CTWSRO Fisheries Biologist, on preparation of a project to enumerate kokanee escapement into the Metolius River using the DIDSON-LR sonar. Additionally, we continue to pursue CRTIFCs programmatic role to represent tribal fishery interests concerning the role of hatchery programs in regional management review processes with NOAA Fisheries Service, the NPCC and other co-management agencies.

This project provided support to tribal fisheries programs whose objectives include rebuilding the populations of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, coho salmon O. kisutch, sockeye salmon O. nerka and steelhead rainbow trout O. mykiss in the mid- and upper-Columbia River Basin.