PROJECT GOAL:

Historically, the primary goal was to provide a safety net captive broodstock population to prevent the extinction of  Snake River Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) listed as Endangered under the U. S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).  With this goal accomplished, the primary goal is now to generate fish and eggs for use in recovery actions for this Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU).  In 2020 work under this contract is anticipated to produce up to 1,000 maturing adults for natural spawning in Idaho’s Stanley Basin Lakes or use in artificial spawning actions that will generate up to 600,000 eyed eggs for transfer to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Springfield Hatchery for smolt production.

BACKGROUND:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), in partnership with Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) has been maintaining ESA listed Snake River Sockeye Salmon from Redfish Lake, Idaho in a captive broodstock program since 1991.  This is the only remaining anadromous (ocean migrating) Sockeye Salmon population within the Snake River Basin(108,00 square miles). The fish in this ESU swim further inland (900 miles) and climb to a higher elevation (6,500 feet)  than any other anadromous Sockeye Salmon.
Captive broodstocks are a form of artificial propagation where fish are cultured in captivity for most or all of their life cycle.  These programs provide a safety net to prevent populations from going extinct.  Captive broodstock programs generate much higher egg-to-spawner survival (usually > 50%) than occurs in nature (usually < 0.2 %).  This higher in-culture survival of captive broodstock salmon enables them to produce large numbers of eggs, fry, and smolts per generation for use in population rebuilding programs.  The recovery program is using this accelerated population building ability to speed the restoration of Snake River Sockeye Salmon.

In the Salmon Subbasin Summary, federal, state, and tribal agencies repeatedly call for artificial production programs, like the Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon captive broodstock program, to meet goals and objectives (Section 5.2, Fisheries Needs 14 and 15).  The continuation of current programs, such as the Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon captive broodstock program, is also a required reasonable and prudent action (Item 177) in the NOAA Fisheries 2000 FCRPS Biological Opinion, an Updated Proposed Action (Hatchery UPA 13) in the 2004 Biological Opinion on Remand (Sections 6.14.2.3 and 9.3), and RPA 41 of the 2008 and subsequent FCRPS Biological Opinions.  In addition, the implementation and refinement of captive broodstocks for the recovery of Snake River Sockeye Salmon have been identified as priorities in the 1994 Northwest Power Planning Council's (NWPPC) Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program (7.4A.1-3), are part of the overarching and regional objectives of the 2000 NWPPC Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, and are priorities described in the 2015 NOAA Fisheries Recovery Plan for Snake River salmon.

Between 1991 and 2019, NOAA Fisheries has captively reared the progeny of Sockeye Salmon that returned to Redfish Lake.  Captive propagation of these fish from fall 1994 through 2019 has resulted in thousands of prespawning adults; millions of eyed eggs; and thousands of juveniles being provided to IDFG for release in Stanley Basin lakes.  In upcoming years, the cooperative NOAA Fisheries/IDFG Redfish Lake captive broodstock program should continue to provide large numbers of animals for use in recovery efforts.  NOAA Fisheries feels that continuation of the cooperative captive broodstock program is imperative to the recovery of Snake River Sockeye Salmon (NMFS 2015).

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

Because of the critically low population size of Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon, captive broodstocks appear to offer the only hope to maintain the species while the recovery plan is being implemented.  The maintenance of geographically separate captive brood populations at Eagle, Idaho and Manchester-Burley, Washington will remain a key factor in reducing the risk of catastrophic loss of the Redfish Lake Sockeye Salmon gene pool from mechanical failure, human error, or disease.   The NOAA-Fisheries captive broodstock project expects to produce up to 1,000 maturing fish during the current contract cycle.  It is anticipated the project will supply up to 600,000 eyed eggs for use in the smolt production programs during this contract cycle.  During this contract cycle the project will continue to maintain at least 1,000 fish from each of three broodyears in the safety net for this ESA listed stock.  In aggregate, these actions will continue to prevent the extinction of Snake River Sockeye Salmon and produce fish for release in the rebuilding of this ESA listed species.