Laserfiche WebLink
Since 1984 marked hatchery fish are stocked in areas where the wild run is known or <br />strongly suspected (where definitive data are unavailable) to be underescaped. In these <br />areas fishing regulations require the release of all unmarked fish.l <br />There is mixing of wild and hatchery stocks and WDW estimates that 44 percent of the <br />wild summer steelhead returning to the Kalama River are the direct offspring of <br />naturally spawning hatchery fish. The WDW has also found that in the Kalama River, <br />wild summer steelhead appear to be 8.6 times. as effective as hatchery fish in producing <br />adult returnees (Leider et al. 1989). <br />Survival rates for hatchery winter steelhead range from 16.9 percent for the 1984 brood <br />year in the Quillayute-River to 0.21 percent for 1980 brood year in Cook Creek, tributary <br />to the Quinault River. An average return rate for hatchery winter steelhead is 5.3 <br />percent (based on data on smolt return rates for nine western Washington rivers). <br />Salmon <br />The Washington Department of Fisheries (WDF) manages most of the salmon runs in <br />Washington. State salmon programs are developing guidelines that will give the <br />supplementation programs management direction. These guidelines will allow WDF to <br />document, plan, coordinate, and evaluate ongoing- and future activities. They are <br />currently attempting a more focused evaluation on drainages managed as natural; i.e., <br />Gray Harbor, Queets, Quillayute, Skagit, Snohomish, and Stillaguamish Rivers. <br />Hatchery management programs are conducted by the state in South Puget Sound <br />drainages. Most of these drainages are supplemented to meet higher salmon harvest <br />rates, maximize seeding-and realize hatchery goals. -These programs are primarily <br />operational with little or no evaluation. Harvest augmentation is a management goal in <br />many of these programs. <br />Within Washington, off station releases accounted for 22 percent of all releases by state <br />and federal hatcheries in 1985 and 1986 (Anon. 1987a). This amounted to more than <br />154 million salmon, 60 percent coho, 26 percent chum, 13 percent fall chinook, and 0.4 <br />percent spring chinook. <br />In some instances where the chinook runs have declined they are utilizing hatchery fish <br />in an effort to rebuild runs. <br />Wild broodstock programs have been attempted with chinook and coho. WDF had <br />problems with wild broodstock in hatchery- production situations. Wild coho broodstock <br />'James Nielsen, Washington Department of Wildlife, Olympia, Washington, pers. <br />comm., August, 1990. <br />10 <br />