[5] New Review Suggests Changes At Gorge Hatcheries

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has suggested ending its strategy of releasing smolts in March from its Spring Creek Hatchery that has cost ratepayers millions in extra spill at Bonneville Dam, a move that would cut fall chinook production by nearly a third.

The recommendation came in a draft report that reviewed operations of the agency's Columbia Gorge hatcheries. It calls for reducing fall chinook releases to about 10 million smolts from the current 15-million fish release in order "to reduce on-station risks and the potential need for a March release." Typically, about 7 million young fish have been released at that time.

For years, BPA has spilled water for days in early March to help the young salmon past Bonneville Dam. The practice has cost of millions of dollars in lost power production, and risks potentially damaging chum salmon eggs in redds below the dam from high dissolved gas levels. The chum are listed for ESA protection.

For many years, the hatchery released several million fall chinook fry during the winter. A partially completed USFWS study shows the return rate of unfed fry released in December was about 30 times less than the fish released later in March through April.

The unfed fry releases began in 1901 (every February), but were curtailed in 1974 due to inadequate adult runs. They were restored in the 1990s when surplus returns were again experienced, according to a 2006 USFWS report. But it's not a release strategy that managers use today.

Unpublished data from the 1950s and 1960s pegged the return rate of the early fry releases at only 0.0022 percent.

The latest data showed the survival rate of age-3 adults (brood year 1999) that were released early at 0.0153 percent, while the standard releases that year (March-May) showed a 0.3774 return rate back to the hatchery.

The hatchery has produced tule fall chinook for ocean and river harvest since in the early 1900s, with the original broodstock trapped at the Big White Salmon River. The program has added an average of nearly 20,000 fish to ocean and river fisheries every year (1990-1999 data), and needs about 10,000 fish to return to the hatchery for broodstock.

Currently, the hatchery stock is listed for protection under the ESA as part of the lower Columbia fall chinook ESU.

However, the report says by reducing current tule production, the facility could produce 350,000 tule smolts for restoring the natural population in the Big White Salmon River after the removal of Condit Dam, which is slated for 2008 or 2009.

"The available space could also be used to assist with reintroduction of other species such as spring chinook, coho, chum, bull trout, and steelhead," said the draft report, which also noted that only chum and chinook should be reared to full smolt stage because of limitations of the water supply.

As a long-term goal, the report calls for continuation of tule production and for a reevaluation of management priorities and continuing efforts to reduce tule strays in the pool behind Bonneville Dam.

The report also looked at current operations at the service's other facilities in the Gorge at Carson and Little White Salmon, which raise spring chinook and upriver brights, respectively. These operations are focused on producing fish for harvest in the tributaries where the hatcheries are located.

But the report said current operations pose some risks. Upriver brights from the Little White Salmon river stray into the Big White Salmon and spawn after tules have spawned--to the possible detriment of native tules in the region.

Also, upriver brights raised at the Little White Salmon facility, but released in the Yakima River, may also pose risks to restoration of the fall chinook stock there. The report said it appears that the URBs raised at the hatchery exhibit significant straying throughout Bonneville Pool, and wander above The Dalles Dam as well. The original stock for the hatchery came from natural origin adults trapped at Bonneville Dam in the 1970s, but their origin was unknown.

The hatchery review team recommended transitioning to a broodstock genetically integrated with the Priest Rapids hatchery stock or another one representing a natural population in the Mid-Columbia.

The report also recommended changing its spring chinook broodstock from the Carson-type stock to the stock from the Klickitat Hatchery to create a better genetic fit for reintroducing spring chinook in the Big White Salmon after removal of Condit Dam.

Overall, the report concluded, the Gorge facilities are playing an "effective role" in partly mitigating for effects of habitat destruction by federal dams in this part of the Columbia and are situated to play a role in restoring native stocks to the region. -B. R.

The following links were mentioned in this story:

Columbia Gorge NFHs Review (Draft Report)

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