Northwest Power Planning Council (NPPC) program measure 7.4D addresses captive brood stock studies within the Fish and Wildlife program.  It acknowledges that captive brood stock programs have the potential to rapidly increase adult fish numbers, while retaining genetic diversity of severely depleted wild or naturally spawning stocks of salmon.  The NPPC program measure also states that implementation of captive brood stock programs may be the most effective means of accelerating recovery of severely depleted stocks.  NPPC program measure 7.4D.2 directs that the program fund captive brood stock demonstration projects identified under the coordinated habitat and production process.  It also advises that adequate evaluation be conducted to understand the fitness of captive brood progeny for supplementation, evaluation of fish husbandry and fish health techniques and development of culture systems that minimize loss of fish.  A similar NPPC Measure (7.3.B2) directs the implementation of high priority supplementation projects which should include monitoring and evaluation. The current Captive Broodstock Artificial Propagation project addresses the monitoring and evaluation of the Grande Ronde River Chinook captive brood stock program in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Project Coordination:

The Captive Broodstock Artificial Propagation Chinook project in the Grande Ronde River is a high priority project recognized by state, federal and Tribal representatives through the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority (CBFWA).   This project has been coordinated with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).  Project coordination with NMFS has resulted in sharing of NMFS facilities at the Manchester Research Station and in ODFW procuring a Section 10 permit to conduct Chinook salmon captive broodstock enhancement activities in the Grande Ronde River.  In addition, the Nez Perce Tribe received its own ESA Section 10 Permit (#1149) to operate a weir on the Lostine River. The draft NMFS recovery plan, under the Endangered Species Act, acknowledges the use of captive broodstock programs to prevent population extinction and to supplement and enhance natural Chinook populations.


Project History:

The Nez Perce Tribe recommended implementation of a captive broodstock and/or conventional hatchery Chinook smolt production program in the Lostine River in 1994 in an attempt to preserve a salmon spawning aggregate that was at low levels of abundance and high risk of extirpation.  Subsequently, in 1995, the Tribe cooperated with the ODFW in the planning and development of a Chinook salmon captive broodstock management plan for the Grande Ronde River.

Chinook captive broodstock program activities were initiated in 1995 with the collection of juvenile Chinook salmon from the Lostine River, Catherine Creek and upper Grande Ronde River.  Fish were reared at Lookingglass Fish Hatchery until the smolt stage and then were transferred to temporary facilities at Bonneville Hatchery (BOH) and to the Manchester Research Station (MRS).  This allowed the ability to evaluate freshwater and saltwater captive broodstock rearing strategies.  Chinook salmon parr were also collected in 1996 from the Lostine River and Catherine Creek and in 1997 through 2006 juvenile Chinook were collected from all three streams.  Therefore funding is required for continued monitoring and evaluation of the spring Chinook captive broodstock program in 2010 and beyond.

Project Process:

The captive broodstock process begins with the collection of 300 wild parr from their natal stream.  The parr are raised to smolt stage at Wallowa Fish Hatchery, and then transferred to Bonneville Fish Hatchery and Manchester Research Station to be reared to adult stage.  Each fish is identified by a PIT tag and VI tag allowing it to be tracked through out its life time at each rearing facilities.  However, the TOT and BPA, after review of the data, concluded  that additional parr collections for the Lostine stock are no longer warranted. Parr were not collected in 2008/9 and will not be collected in 2010.

Fish transferred to Bonneville are reared entirely in fresh water and those transferred to Manchester are reared in saltwater until maturation when they are then transferred to Bonneville for spawning.  The different rearing strategies or "treatments" are being evaluated in order to maximize adult performance.   Fish are sampled through out their life span with regard to length, weight, disease and mortality rates.  This allows co-managers to evaluate what rearing strategies work best.  Each spring, at both adult facilities, all fish are sampled for maturity status.  Co-managers use ultra-sound imaging to determine early maturation and segregation of adults.  This is particularly helpful in identifying maturing saltwater reared fish that may benefit from early removal from the salt environment and reduce the incidence of osmoregulatory problems.  Maturity sorts continue through August and spawning typically begins in early September.  Final length and weights are acquired, fecundity and fertility estimates for each female are calculated allowing for further analysis of rearing strategies.  The use of Cryopreservation technology is also a major component of the Captive Broodstock Program.  Every effort is made to maximize the genetic diversity of F1 offspring from this program.  Any male whose fresh gametes were not incorporated into a spawning matrix for that season is cryopreserved and stored at the Bonneville facility with a duplicate inventory at the University of Idaho.  Co-managers regularly use these gametes especially in the early and late portions of the spawning season when fresh males maybe limited.  

Eggs are incubated at Oxbow Hatchery and transferred to Irrigon Hatchery at eye up.  At Irrigon they are raised to parr and then transferred to Lookingglass where they are reared to smolt stage.  From Lookingglass the smolts are transferred to their natal streams for acclimation and release. Monitoring and evaluation of these captive broodstock F1 offspring continues through their return as adults to spawn. Co-managers assess their run timing, size and age-at-maturity, distribution, sex ratios, etc. and compare these performance measures with those of their wild counterparts.

Project Goals and Objectives:

1.  To prevent extirpation of native Grande Ronde Basin spring Chinook salmon.
2.  To preserve and enhance Grande Ronde Basin spring Chinook salmon through implementation and use of the captive broodstock program.
3.  To maintain genetic diversity in the artificially propagated captive broodstock Chinook population.
4.  Maintain genetic diversity in the natural population of salmon in the Grande Ronde Basin.

Objective 1.  Coordinate the Captive Broodstock Artificial Propagation project with state and federal management agencies in the Grande Ronde Basin.

Approach:  The Nez Perce Tribe has participated in the Conservation Planning Oversight Team (CONSPOT) and Integrated Team (IT) planning process with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the development of the Grande Ronde Basin captive broodstock plan and Section 10 permit application under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  As a salmon manager the Tribe is interested in coordinating with ODFW and CTUIR in the successful development and monitoring of the experimental captive broodstock program.  The Tribe believes that close coordination in the monitoring and evaluation of this captive broodstock project should lead us to an understanding of the effectiveness of this approach in threatened and endangered species preservation and recovery under the ESA.

Objective 2.  Monitor and evaluate captive broodstock with ODFW and CTUIR.

Approach:  During the smoltification process, Chinook at WFH are transported to either the BOH (freshwater rearing) or to the MRS (saltwater rearing).  Evaluation of captive brood post-smolts would occur for the groups reared in freshwater and saltwater rearing strategies until the fish matured at age II (precocial males), III, IV or V.  Evaluation of fish during post-smolt growth periods would be minimized to avoid disturbances to the captive brood fish.  Assistance will be provided and closely coordinated with ODFW and CTUIR for VI tagging, analysis of mortalities, spawning of fish, collection of information from spawned adults and collection of cryopreservation samples.

Objective 3.  Monitor and evaluate the F1 generation offspring.

Approach:  Monitoring of the captive brood production rearing at Lookingglass Hatchery allows for a measure of comparison among treatment groups and across years. Therefore data collected during the rearing process assists in the proper evaluation of the captive brood product used in supplementation. Once released into nature the captive broodstock F1s will be compared to the performance of their wild counterparts.

Objective 4.  Monitor the performance of adult F1 Chinook salmon returning to the Lostine River.

Approach:  An adult Chinook salmon fish weir and trap are planned for operation in the Lostine River in 2010 as part of a separate project to trap and spawn adults and develop a conventional hatchery smolt production program.  Information collected from this facility will assist in developing baseline information on the abundance and timing of migration of adult salmon into the Lostine River for comparison with progeny of captive brood parents. Adults from the F1 generation are expected to return in the year 2010. Nez Perce staff will install and operate the Lostine River weir and trap for data collection on adult salmon. Information on adult size and age composition of the run will be obtained from salmon carcasses collected on the spawning grounds in a cooperative effort with ODFW.

Objective 5.  Technology Transfer.

Approach:  Communication of results is essential for practical adaptive management in the Grand Ronde basin. Information shared between stakeholders regarding the captive broodstock process increases our collective knowledge of supplementation. That knowledge will lead us to effective salmon management in the Lostine River and other salmon streams.