Future of Our Salmon Conference Portland, OR Oct 17,

2012

Why Artificial Propagation?

Gary James, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian ReservationDNR, Fisheries Program Manager

Why Art. Prop. – Topics Covered

Columbia Basin habitat & salmon survival

Social-Economic-Treaty Impacts

Fish recovery standards

Traditional, Ecological, Cultural & Science Values

Purposes and Types of Hatcheries

Right and Wrong Hatchery Practices

Defining Hatchery Program Success

Survival Benefits of Hatchery Supplementation

Risk vs. Benefit - An impact or a Recovery Tool?

Sturgeon, Lamprey and Freshwater Mussels

What has happened to Columbia Basin habitat?

Over 1,000 dams have been constructed since the late 1800’s.

There are 13 mainstem Columbia and Snake River dams.

Only 55% of once-available habitat is still accessible today.

About 65% of remaining accessible mainstem Columbia and Snake River habitat has been transformed to reservoirs/pools

Common tributary limiting factors due to floodplain development are poor water quantity/quality and lack of stream channel complexity.

What has happened to Columbia Basin salmon &

steelhead? Major loss in habitat quantity

Major loss in habitat quality

Two spawners often don’t replace themselves (deficit returns)

23 populations have become extinct

176 populations are ESA-listed as threatened or endangered

61% of accessible areas contains ESA-listed populations

Past runs of 15M are now about 1.5M (about

80% hatchery)

Social-Economic-Treaty Impacts

Once productive usual & accustomed fishing areas closed

Reduced harvest in remaining open areas

Former Native American harvest of 4-6M now about .25M

Priority ceremonial & subsistence needs for fish, a critical “first food”, is sometimes not met

Reduced economic input from sport & commercial fisheries

Fish Population Trajectories

>1:1

Posi

tive

Rebuild

ing T

rend

Trajectory of Fish Recovery Programs

Plus Full Harvest

ESA Delist

Min. Viable Threshold

Subbasin Plan Goals

Fish Recovery Levels/Standards  

RecoveryStandard

Objectives Achieved NumericExampleNatural

Production Harvest

1 Avoid Extinction No No 2+

2 Min Viable Pop Threshold

No No 200-500

3 ESA Delisting No Some 1,000-1,500

4 Full Habitat Utilization Yes Some 2,000

5 Full Habitat Plus Harvest

Yes Yes 5,000

Using Traditional, Ecological, Cultural & Science Values

Tribes utilize all these to develop and implement

programs addressing holistic needs:

Goals focused on First Food abundance for

traditional/cultural/religious use

Target maintenance of harvest opportunities as per treaty right

Target higher escapement/habitat utilization for full ecological

function

Implement comprehensive fish restoration strategies - all

H/gravel-to-gravel

Emphasis on habitat improvements along with hatchery supplementation where necessary to support rebuilding

Seek benefits of using hatchery tool while minimizing risks to

wild fish

CTUIR DNR/Fisheries Missions & River Vision

DNR: To protect, restore, and enhance the First Foods water, salmon, deer, cous, and huckleberry - for the perpetual cultural, economic, and sovereign benefit of the CTUIR. We will accomplish this utilizing traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and science to inform: 1) population and habitat management goals and actions; and 2) natural resource policies and regulatory mechanisms.

Fisheries: To provide sustainable harvest opportunities for aquatic species of the first food order by protecting, conserving, and restoring native aquatic populations and their habitats.

Umatilla River Vision: “ The Umatilla basin includes a healthy river capable of providing First Foods that sustain the continuity of the Tribe’s culture. This vision requires a river that is dynamic, and shaped not only by physical and biological processes, but the interactions and interconnections between those processes.”

Fish Passage Improvements Instream Flow Enhancement Artificial Propagation – Salmon

Reintroduction Watershed Protection and

Restoration Floodplain Habitat Enhancement Harvest Management Monitoring and Evaluation

Comprehensive Restoration Strategy

Purpose of Hatcheries

To compensate for impacts of reduced or lost fish production and productivity due to human actions (dam construction, habitat degradation, etc.)

Recovery tool to help rebuild natural production (wild fish nurseries)

Mitigation tool to help achieve harvestable populations

Hatcheries don’t fix factors that reduced productivity

We don’t have low fish productivity because of hatcheries, we have hatcheries because of low productivity

Hatchery Program Types

1. Harvest Augmentation Programs Fish on the table - production for harvest to

replace lost natural production

2. Reintroduction Programs Fish in habitat and fish on the table -

production for harvest and natural spawning in areas that had experienced extirpation

3. Supplementation Programs Rebuild natural production and fish on the

table - production to increase natural production and harvest for depressed populations

What Have We Learned? Wrong & Right Hatchery

PracticesPast hatchery management mistakes:

Wrong purpose for hatchery type (try to supplement natural production with a harvest program)

- broodstock maladapted for target location

- select for specific size or run timing

- inappropriate juvenile release location

- hatchery tool still “tainted” due to past mistakes

What Have We Learned? Wrong & Right Hatchery

PracticesSound hatchery management practices: Select suitable source stock

For supplementation programs, integrate H & N components- select broodstock from cross section of run

- integrate natural & hatchery origin returns into both

broodstock and natural spawning population

- acclimate juveniles to natural production areas

- monitor program to inform adaptive management

Location of Mitchell Act Hatcheries

Mitigation for upriver impacts

provided fisheries in

lower Columbia

Hatchery/Satellite Facilities in the Grande Ronde Basin

Satellite acclimation/release facilities in natural

production locations provide in-place/in-kind

supplementation

Lookingglass Hatchery

Upper Grande Ronde River CatherineCreek

Lostine River

Defining Hatchery Program Success

For Tribes, putting “fish on the table” or maintaining or increasing harvest opportunities in all usual and accustomed treaty fishing areas is an important success principle for all 3 types of hatchery programs.

Increasing spawners and rebuilding natural production to counter the effects of habitat impacts is another success principle.

Accomplish above using “best hatchery management practices” to minimize genetic impacts (accept some risk).

Lack of success = continued population declines, inability to delist or more extinctions.

Tribal Restoration Plan life history survival

analysis Most impacted life history stages (~80%

reduction) are:- egg to smolt survival (in tributaries)- juvenile passage (downstream survival in mainstem)

Overall adult to adult returns have changed from:- 10-20 fold return pre-development era to - Near 1:1 spawner-to-spawner replacement level

When populations are “near replacement” environmental circumstances become paramount

Survival Benefits of Hatchery Supplementation

The highest rate of natural mortality in the salmon lifecycle occurs in the egg-to-smolt stage (up to 90%)

Artificial propagation can reduce egg-to-smolt loss to ~10%

Although naturally spawning hatchery fish often produce fewer smolts/redd than wild spawners, the overall adult return from the supplementation program is higher.

Therefore, a reduced relative reproductive success (RRS) or recruits per spawner (R:S) may not be evidence that “supplementation treatment” is not working (or is working to the detriment of the natural population).

Supplementation Benefits

Simple Concept (one fish – two fish)

Spawners R:S Return

Unsupplemented 100 .95 95

Supplemented 200 .75 150

Natural Hatchery Combined0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

R:S

(Supplementation)

Recruits per Spawner (R:S) Comparison

Replacement

Hatchery Benefit vs. Risk(recovery tool or impact?)

Benefits: Demographic boost to

natural spawning population

Avoid extinction, ESA listing or possibly delist

Reestablish fisheries in traditional locations

Risk of not using tool: Continue deficit returns

Continue low natural production

Continue low/no harvest

Risk of using tool: Reduced genetic diversity

Reduced productivity (RRS & RS)

Tribal Approach: Seek benefits of using hatchery tool while minimizing risks to wild fish

Sturgeon, Lamprey, Freshwater Mussels

also need artificial propagation help

Sturgeon Once-anadromous populations now exist in fragmented

pools Change from river to pool habitat has limited juvenile

recruitment Adult populations cannot be sustained at

robust/harvestable levels

Lamprey An estimated 30-50% of adult lamprey are lost at each

mainstem dam Populations extirpated or severely declined in upriver

tributaries Tribes have initiated adult translocation and are planning

artificial prop.

Freshwater Mussels Habitat degradation in mainstem and tributaries has also

caused extirpation or severe declines in most subbasins Once main habitat issues are addressed, mussels will

need to be reintroduced

Questions?

Protecting & Enhancing First Foods – Revival of Traditional Fisheries