Steelhead Supplementation in Idaho Rivers, 2000 Annual Report PDF Download

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Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
In 2000, we continued our assessment of the Sawtooth Hatchery steelhead stock to reestablish natural populations in Beaver and Frenchman creeks in the upper Salmon River. We stocked both streams with 15 pair of hatchery adults and estimated the potential smolt production from the 1999 outplant. I estimated that about nine smolts per female could be produced in both streams from the 1999 outplant. The smolt-to-adult return would need to exceed 20% to return two adults at this level of production. In the Red River drainage, we stocked Dworshak hatchery stock fingerlings and smolts, from 1993 to 1999, to assess which life-stage produces more progeny when the adults return to spawn. In 2000, we operated the Red River weir to trap adults that returned from these stockings, but none were caught from either group. We continued to monitor wild steelhead populations in the Lochsa and Selway river drainages. We estimated that 26 wild adult steelhead returned to Fish Creek. This is the lowest adult escapement we have documented (when the weir was intact all spring) since we began monitoring Fish Creek in 1992. I estimated that nearly 25,000 juvenile steelhead migrated out of Fish Creek this year. Juvenile steelhead densities in Lochsa and Selway tributaries were similar to those observed in 1999. In 2000, we obtained funding for a DNA analysis to assess Idaho's steelhead stock structure. We collected fin samples from wild steelhead in 70 streams of the Clearwater, Snake, and Salmon River drainages and from our five hatchery stocks. The DNA analysis was subcontracted to Dr. Jennifer Nielsen, Alaska Biological Science Center, Anchorage, and will be completed in 2001.