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Location:
From 1996-1997,
river mile 1.8 on the Dungeness River, near Sequim, on the dike
at the Olympic Game Farm.
From 2005-present,
river mile 0.5, near the mouth of the Dungeness River.
History:
The wild chinook
salmon population in the Dungeness River is an important resource
for the citizens of Washington State. In the 1980s, declining abundance
of this native stock triggered several extensive studies to evaluate
and correct factors contributing to this decline. Further impetus
to restoration resulted from its designation as a “critical”
stock in the joint State and Tribal Co-Managers 1992 Salmon and
Steelhead Stock Inventory report, based on chronically depressed
levels of spawners. This classification is reserved for stocks in
jeopardy of significant loss of within-stock diversity or at risk
of extinction. Concern for the long-term future of this stock was
heightened by the unstable ecological conditions in the Dungeness
River. Furthermore, Dungeness chinook, which are part of the Puget
Sound Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU), were listed in 1999 as
“threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The Dungeness
River Chinook Salmon Rebuilding Project (DRCSRP) was founded in
December 1991, creating the Dungeness Wild Chinook Restoration Steering
Committee, which included NMFS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS),
the Point No Point Treaty Council (PNPTC), WDFW, Long Live the Kings
(LLtK), with assistance from regional enhancement groups and sportsmen
associations. As of 1996, committee participation has been limited
primarily to WDFW and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, with
occasional attendance by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).
The overall
goal of this project was to provide a self-sustaining, natural population
that maintains the genetic characteristics of the existing chinook
salmon stock and meets the agreed-to escapement goal of 925 spawners
in three out of every four years by 2008. To achieve this goal,
the committee defined the following Genetic, Natural Production,
Production, and Monitoring and Evaluation objectives:
1.
Collect a representative sample of the total population to establish
a captive broodstock, and conduct the program for no more than
two consecutive generations (eight years) to reduce the risk of
domestication,
a. Collect
pre- and post-emergent chinook fry each year from as many “families”
as possible;
b. Rear
fry to spawning adults and release progeny back into the river
in a manner tha mimics their natural life history;
c. Mark
with coded-wire tags (CWT), including blank wire, a statistically
valid proportion of each release strategy; and
d. Continue
to conduct spawner surveys to estimate escapement and recover
CWTs, as well as evaluate recoveries to assess spawner success.
2.
Allow natural production to continue concurrent with the Captive
Broodstock Program
The program
released an average 1.5 million juvenile chinook between 1996-2003.
The last significant egg take from captive broodstock chinook
was in 2003 (approximately 50,000 eggs). In-river spawning escapements
for 2000-2005 have increased each year from 218 to 955 adults.
A new supplementation
program began in 2004, primarily because habitat restoration in
the lower river was not keeping pace with chinook supplementation
and reductions in harvest. The new program is designed to take
eggs from chinook adults across their run-timing to produce up
to 200,000 juveniles for release as yearling and accelerated zero-age
fish. The first significant returns from this program will be
as 3-year old adults in 2007.
Total spawning
escapements are calculated annually, including analysis of hatchery
and wild adults on spawning ground, and spawning distribution
and timing. The average escapement for 1986-1999 was 148 spawners.
Since 2000, escapements have averaged 642 spawners, and are comprised
of about 80% hatchery and 20% natural-origin adults on the spawning
grounds.
Key to the
long-term success of the rebuilding program is the restoration
of chinook salmon habitat in the Dungeness River. Co-managers
have been actively involved with restoration of the lower Dungeness
River used most by chinook salmon. Dungeness River restoration
plans and reports can be found at: http://www.jamestowntribe.org/jclplansreports.htm
Methods:
In the early
1980s USFWS began conducting snorkel surveys and WDFW began their
spawner surveys. WDFW continues to conduct redd counts and sample
carcass for DNA, scales and otoliths to determine the population
age structure and origin.
In 1996-1997,
the Wild Salmon Production/Evaluation unit operated a screw
trap from mid-June through September/October to assess the natural
production of juvenile chinook from adult returns resulting from
the captive broodstock program. Juvenile chinook catches were enumerated
by natural- or hatchery-origin, sub-samples of each were measured
for fork length. Species other than chinook that were captured in
the traps were identified and enumerated, and a sub-sample measured
for fork length.
Beginning in
2005, the Wild Salmon Production/Evaluation unit has operated a
screw trap
from early-February through August. Catches are enumerated by species
and origin, and sub-samples are measured for fork length.
Available
Publications & Data:
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