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NOAA Taking Comments on Hatchery That Keeps Snake River Sockeye from Going Extinct by Staff Columbia Basin Bulletin, August 23, 2023

Idaho's Sockeye Returns in 2023: Ice Harbor 2266, Lower Monumental 2129,
Little Goose, Lower Granite 1541, Stanley Basin 174 (31 of natural origin)

NOAA Fisheries is asking for comments on its existing plan that allows for take of hatchery and listed wild Snake River sockeye to help in the recovery of the fish, listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Comments are due September 7.

The Snake River Hatchery and Genetic Management Plan and an environmental assessment, outlines a hatchery program dealing with recovering and restoring the natural population of Snake River sockeye salmon through a captive broodstock program in the Sawtooth Valley of Idaho, according to a notice by NOAA.

The agency says the "HGMP describes the program in detail, including monitoring and evaluation to assess performance in meeting conservation and supplementation objectives and their effects on ESA-listed sockeye salmon."

NOAA announced its intentions on its website and in an Aug. 4 Federal Register notice.

The hatchery program is currently operating in the Snake River basin and NOAA is considering renewing section 10(a)(1)(A) determination for the sockeye salmon hatchery programs spawning, rearing, and releasing salmon in the Snake River Basin.

"The programs are intended to contribute to the survival and recovery of Snake River Sockeye salmon in the Snake River basin," the Federal Register notice says. "The proposed program would maintain the Snake River sockeye salmon captive broodstock, collect and spawn adult sockeye salmon returning to the Snake River basin, rear juveniles, and release eggs, juveniles, and adult fish in upper Salmon River basin lakes as well as into Tanner Creek. The proposed continuation of the program would indicate best management practices to minimize adverse effects on the ESU."

The current operators of the sockeye captive broodstock program and the agencies who have submitted a new HGMP for review, include the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, the Bonneville Power Administration and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe.

According to NOAA, the hatchery program is intended to:

• supplement or support local natural salmon populations.

• mitigate for fish losses caused by the construction and operation of the four lower Snake River dams, as well as for the effects of climate change on the sockeye's habitat.

Snake River sockeye salmon are the most imperiled anadromous fish stocks in the Columbia River Basin. This year's sockeye passage at Bonneville Dam is mostly over -- daily passage has been in the single digits for nearly two weeks (www.fpc.org). Some 327,526 fish have passed the dam, but most of those were bound for tributaries and lakes in the mid-Columbia River.

The few endangered Snake River sockeye are migrating towards the Stanley Basin's Redfish and Pettit lakes in central Idaho, with just 1,541 of the fish (including both hatchery and wild fish) making it past Lower Granite Dam. At an interagency Technical Management Team meeting two weeks ago, Jonathan Ebel of IDFG reported that the conversion rate (the percentage of fish that pass one dam and make it to the next dam as the fish move upstream) for the fish that traveled from Bonneville Dam to Lower Granite Dam was just 21 percent. Last year the conversion rate was 66 percent, Bonneville to Lower Granite.

The Stanley Basin is another 450 miles and that journey can be hampered by a variety of factors, including low water in the Snake and Salmon rivers and warm temperatures that can slow their progress and make their final migration to the Sawtooth Basin more difficult. Conversion from Lower Granite to the Stanley Basin can vary from 20 to 80 percent, Ebel said at the meeting, adding that conditions are good in the Salmon River this year.

Redfish Lake sockeye, the southern-most population of sockeye salmon in the world, swim 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to a 6,500-foot elevation in central Idaho's Sawtooth Basin to spawn.

Conditions were not so good during the exceptionally warm spring and summer of 2015 when only 101 sockeye returned to Lower Granite Dam and just 44 made it on their own to the Stanley Basin. To reach 101, it took a combined effort of trapping at both Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Washington state (51 fish) and at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery on the Salmon River in the Stanley Basin (6 fish) — and trucking them to IDFG's Eagle Hatchery near Boise — plus the 44 fish that migrated from the mouth of the Columbia River to Redfish Lake.

IDFG has maintained a captive broodstock program for nearly 25 years where sockeye are raised from eggs to adults in hatcheries, and their offspring are used to supplement naturally returning fish. The department releases adult sockeye -- either natural or captive-bred fish -- into Redfish and Pettit lakes near Stanley and allows them to spawn in the lakes.

Snake River sockeye were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1991. Only four adult sockeye returned that year to the Sawtooth Basin, and the combined annual returns between 1991 and 1998 was 16 fish, which included two years when none returned.

From 1985 to 1990 only 58 wild sockeye returned to Idaho. In 1999, seven adult sockeye returned, which were the initial results of the IDFG's sockeye hatchery program. Sockeye continued to struggle throughout the most of the 2000s. Fewer than 30 adults returned annually between 1999 and 2007, except in 2000, when 243 fish returned.

From 2008 through 2014, the annual sockeye returns averaged 837 fish, including 1,516 in 2014, which was the largest return to the Sawtooth Basin since 1955.

Before the turn of the twentieth century, an estimated 150,000 sockeye returned annually to the Snake River basin.

NOAA Fisheries is requesting public comment on the HGMP and the EA for 30 days. The public comment can be submitted to hatcheries.public.comment@noaa.gov with a subject line of "Snake River Sockeye Salmon Production Program", through September 7, 2023. For more information on these hatchery programs and to provide public comment, please visit our website. If you have any questions, please contact Andreas Raisch at 503-230-5405; andreas.raisch@noaa.gov.

Related Pages:
Count the Fish Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Efforts, updated yearly by bluefish