This project seeks to expand our knowledge on the factors limiting production of Okanogan and Wenatchee
sockeye salmon stocks. A primary factor affecting the Okanogan stock is believed to be survival upstream of Wells
Dam. To quantify this mortality, this project has funded PIT and acoustic tagging of sockeye salmon at Wells Dam
with additional sockeye PIT tagged at Bonneville Dam as part of the Upstream Migration Timing Accords project).
The project has also funded PIT tag antenna arrays at Zosel, McIntyre, and Skaha dams as well as an instream array at Oliver, BC.

Acoustic tagging has been conducted at Wells Dam since this project commenced in 2009.  This will be dropped in 2016 due to the expense of this tagging and the fact that recent PIT tag array installations, many funded by this project, should provide much of the passage/survival data provided by acoustic tags.  However, the Okanagan Nation Alliance does plan to use Accords acoustic receivers in a limited study funded by outside sources that will tag returning sockeye at Okanagan Falls that will investigate behavior of adult sockeye in Skaha Lake.

New to this project in 2016 is the use of DIDSON to determine the feasibility of PIT tag detection at the Osoyoos bridge between the northern and central basins of Osoyoos.  Also, after the extremely low survival from Wells Dam to the spawning grounds in 2015, we are working to investigate the feasibility of a trial sockeye transport program from Wells Dam to Osoyoos Lake. Finally, as this Accords project winds down, we seek to devote more resources to a multi-year analysis of data collected by this project.  

We do still plan to conduct PIT tagging at Wells Dam and possibly Priest Rapids Dam to augment the number of PIT tagged sockeye in the Okanagan Basin.  This will allow sockeye salmon to be
tracked through the Okanogan Basin, thereby allowing us to extend our migration survival estimates into the
Okanogan River. We also will be able to determine where in the Okanogan River-Osoyoos Lake mortality is
occurring, which may then allow for the development of different river management actions to reduce this mortality.
It is hoped that, depending on where mortality is occurred, better flow management techniques to optimize adult
survival can be developed. The PIT tag network we develop as part of this project may also improve data on
steelhead and Chinook use of the Canadian portion of the Okanogan Basin.

This project also seeks to standardize smolt abundance estimation methodologies between the two stocks by
conducting annual hydroacoustic surveys of Lake Wenatchee to compare with those being conducted in Osoyoos
Lake.  This project is also supporting expanding PIT tagging of juvenile sockeye in 2016 (likely the last big outmigration for several years) to better assess downstream mortality of these fish through the Okanagan River and the Columbia Basin hydrosystem.  

This project is also working with Canada DFO, the ONA and Queens University to conduct a paloelimnological study of Osoyoos, Wenatchee, and Skaha lakes to estimate historic abundance of sockeye salmon in these lakes.

Much of the work for this contract will be conducted by contractors and subrecipients:

Contractor/subrecipient      Task

Yakama Nation                  D, G, P
Okanagan Nation              F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, P
DFO/Queens University    Q, P
Biomark:  F