FY07-09 proposal 199801006

Jump to Reviews and Recommendations

Section 1. Administrative

Contacts

Section 2. Locations

Province / subbasin: Blue Mountain / Grande Ronde

Section 3. Focal species

Section 4. Past accomplishments

Section 5. Relationships to other projects

Section 6. Biological objectives

Section 7. Work elements (coming back to this)

Section 8. Budgets

Itemized estimated budget

Total estimated FY 2007-2009 budgets

Cost sharing

Section 9. Project future

Future O&M costs: This is primarily a research project. Therefore, any maintenance costs are limited to field and office equipment replacement or repair.

Termination date: 2014(tentative)
Comments: Captive broodstock fish are reared from collection as parr through maturation, spawned and their progeny reared to the smolt stage and released into the stream from which their parents were collected. These progeny return and spawn naturally in the natal stream of their parents. Their offspring complete lives entirely in the natural natural environment. This cycle typically requires 1-5 years of captive rearing to reach maturity and spawn, 1.5 years of F1 juvenile rearing to smolt and release, 1-3 years for F1 adult returns, and 1.5 years for natural F2 smolt production, and 1-3 years for F2 adult returns. Hence, to completely evaluate a cycle of three generations requires up to 14 years. The program also has an experimental component, the design of which requires a minimum of five cycles, thus requiring 19 years for completion. The program begain in 1995 and will tentatively conclude in 2014.

Final deliverables: Final project report authored by co-managers with findings and conclusions regarding captive broodstock technology and its ability to conserve and restore listed Chinook salmon populations. Collected, analyzed and archived captive broodstock data available to region. A variety of journal publications about aspects of captive broodstock technology.

Section 10. Narrative and other documents

Reviews and recommendations

ISRP PRELIMINARY REVIEW (Jun 2, 2006)

Recommendation: Response requested

NPCC comments: This project is a subcomponent of 199801001. The proposal is not clearly written because it is hard to determine what is being done by 199801006 and 19801001. A response is requested that clarifies the tasks performed by each of these projects. Further, on page 17 of the narrative sub-objective 2.2, Monitor and evaluate captive broodstock post smolts reared at Bonneville Hatchery and Manchester Research Station; it is not clear whether this task is performed by NPT, ODFW, or NOAA Fisheries, this should be identified in a response. The project summary includes work done by this project and others – it is hard to tell who did what. No results are presented on adult returns, which are the penultimate goal, the ultimate goal being naturally-produced smolts from the spawning of adults produced by the captive reared parents. Since at least some data was presented by 1998010001, some should have been presented here. The ISRP wishes to communicate to the project sponsors that the results of fish culture efforts alone are not sufficient reporting, also needed are the results following release to the natural environment. The high proportions of fish in the Grande Ronde River that originated from the captive program provide a compelling argument for this type of program. However, the genetic consequences from reliance on captive broodstock or supplementation remains unknown. Consequently, any near-term demographic benefit is likely to persist only during the duration of the management intervention. Long-term, deleterious genetic affects likely occur that could outweigh the near-term demographic benefit. Adverse effects from this and other artificial production on other species, such as bull trout, are not considered, but could be significant.

ISRP FINAL REVIEW (Aug 31, 2006)

Recommendation: Fundable in part (Qualified)

NPCC comments: Fundable in Part to continue and complete the captive propagation experiment. Along with 199801001, the project has already continued to collect parr beyond the time frame that was initially envisioned. Additional parr collections do not seem justified. This project should be limited to raising the parr they now have collected, and completing the envisioned experiment. Qualification is that the design of the analysis be capable of quantifying the demographic effect of natural spawning by captive propagated and supplementation adults on natural production in the next generation. Proposal 199801006 is a component, along with 199801001, of a captive propagation project for spring Chinook in the Grande Ronde subbasin. 199801006 is involved with monitoring the natural parr that are collected and then reared at hatcheries/facilities maintained by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries. Sponsors of 199801001 operate acclimation facilities on Catherine Creek, Lostine River, and the upper Grande Ronde. In the preliminary review the ISRP requested a response that clarified the tasks performed by the sponsor under this proposal, and the tasks performed by other co-managers. The authors’ response clearly laid out the various organizations involved and summarized them nicely in Table 1. 2006 Field Activities Schedule and Table 2. 2006 Technical Oversight Team Meeting Schedule. They also explained the split in M&E activities at Bonneville and at Manchester. The ISRP thanks the sponsor for succinctly providing this information. The ISRP also requested a summary of the data on returning adult hatchery progeny of the captive reared parents collected as natural parr. The sponsors provided this information for the Lostine River site. The authors’ response was good in one sense – that it gave substantial details about the adult return data. In the Lostine River there has been an increase in the numbers of returning adults of all types: natural, captive propagation, and supplementation. From this brief summary it is not possible to attribute the increase in natural adults (the ultimate goal of both the captive propagation and supplementation) to either artificial production program. The ISRP urges that the analysis of data be designed to rigorously evaluate the contribution of artificial production to natural production in the next generation. There is a need to develop information on the parentage of the "naturally produced returning adults." Were they the product of wild x wild, wild x hatchery (and which type), or hatchery x hatchery (and which type) matings in the wild? The DNA pedigree analysis should provide the way to determine that, but it not clear what is to really be done. Because that information is the key to determining the real level of success of the supplementation experiment underway, that methodology could/should be explained in detail.