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Facility Catering to Kelts Will Be Built This Summer by Eric Barker Lewiston Tribune, June 16, 2024

Tribe and Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
to construct area for repeat spawners

The Nez Perce Tribe expects to begin construction this summer on a new kelt rehabilitation center at its Cherrylane Hatchery.

Kelt are adult female steelhead that have already spawned and attempt to do so again. Unlike salmon, steelhead have the ability to spawn more than once. The behavior is more common in coastal streams but less so in the Snake River that is more than 400 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Survival of kelts during their downstream, return trip to the ocean ranges from 4% to 35%.

In order to do it, the spawned-out fish that are low on energy reserves must repeat the downstream journey they made as juveniles, negotiate their way past eight dams and reach salt water with enough strength left over to forage and grow strong enough to surge upstream, pass all eight dams one more time and spawn.

The Nez Perce Tribe and Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission run a program that attempts to boost wild steelhead production by capturing and reconditioning kelts in hatcheries. The program targets wild, mostly B-run steelhead. The fish are captured in the juvenile fish bypass systems at Snake River dams as they are moving downstream. The ones judged to have the best chances of survival are trucked to Dworshak National Fish Hatchery and held and fed for one or two years. When they are ready to spawn again, they are released below Lower Granite Dam.

"Right now we recondition fish at Dworshak Hatchery. It's outside in elements and it's on a water supply line that was really not intended for fish production and it regularly needs to be patched and repaired," said Becky Johnson, production director of the Nez Perce Tribe's Department of Fisheries Resources Management. "It's really not very secure and dependable. It's something we have patched together to do the work. This is something that is going to be much more secure and good for the fish and for the people who do the work."

Wild steelhead are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Returns have been especially low over many of the last several years.

In 2021, analysis by the tribe showed 19% of the steelhead populations in the Snake River Basin had reached the quasi-extinction level -- an analytical tool used by the federal government to assess the risk of extinction. The threshold is tripped when a wild fish population has 50 or fewer spawners return to natal streams for four consecutive years.

Johnson said last year two kelts were captured at the dams that had previously been reconditioned in the program -- meaning they could potentially spawn a third time.

In addition to adding to the spawning population, kelts are valued for their fecundity.

"Usually a maiden spawner has about 6,000 eggs and reconditioned fish can have 9,000 or more."

Related Pages:
Nez Perce Tribe Seeking Next Step for Steelhead Kelt Facility to Capture, Recondition Spawned Fish by Eric Barker, Columbia Basin Bulletin, 10/2/16
Reconditioning Steelhead Kelts Improves Their Survival by Laura Berg, NW Fishletter, 9/6/16
Adult Steelhead Released to Boost Snake River Populations by Steve Jackson, Spokane Public Radio, 11/22/19
Kelt Program Aims to Rehabilitate Valuable Repeat Steehead Spawners in the Snake River by Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, 11/21/19
Repeat Spawners: Study Looks At How Improving Steelhead 'Kelt' Survival Could Aid At-Risk Populations by Eric Barker, Columbia Basin Bulletin 7/22/16
Will Getting Some Steelhead To Spawn Twice Improve Numbers? Yakama Nation Project Looks For Answers by Eric Barker, Columbia Basin Bulletin 11/7/14