Summer Salmon

[DIron]

Chief Joseph Hatchery has been producing Summer Chinook since 2014, their first release year, so returns began showing up in 2018. 60% of the fish harvested in the Brewster pool that year, were returns from Chief Jo. Again, the issue with allowing a lower river fishery is the weak Snake River returns, not upper Columbia Summers. Above Priest Rapids Dam, you have 4 major hatcheries producing Summer Chinook; Eastbank, Entiat, Wells, and Chief Jo, all "for harvest" programs - 100% AD clipped.

Reading all of the input about upstream Salmon (likely Steelhead as well) return #'s makes me think that we need to adopted some of the practices that Cali is having such great success with. I.E. One such program holds the smolts in the upstream water for a bit then trucks them downstream to open water where they can better survive. This allows for the smolts to avoid predation (think pike minnows, Cormorants, and of course crossing dams) which has increased returns by over 40%. Yes, over 40% increase in returns with no increase in the #'s of smolts introduced into the system. Seems like we should at least try.

[Stein]

It would be nice to see the department try a few things.  It seems like we are kind of stuck in the "can't do this, can't do that" loop.

That said, I'm sure someone could figure out a reason to sue even that idea, the artificially huge flocks of birds need to eat too.

It would be nice to have a better understanding of a very complex problem.  What percentage of the problem (low salmon numbers) is due to river conditions (including predators) and what percentage is due to ocean conditions (temp, feed, etc).  It's impossible to calculate specifically, but where are the choke points that matter and which ones are the lower hanging fruit?

[deerlick]

Chief Joseph Hatchery has been producing Summer Chinook since 2014, their first release year, so returns began showing up in 2018. 60% of the fish harvested in the Brewster pool that year, were returns from Chief Jo. Again, the issue with allowing a lower river fishery is the weak Snake River returns, not upper Columbia Summers. Above Priest Rapids Dam, you have 4 major hatcheries producing Summer Chinook; Eastbank, Entiat, Wells, and Chief Jo, all "for harvest" programs - 100% AD clipped.

Reading all of the input about upstream Salmon (likely Steelhead as well) return #'s makes me think that we need to adopted some of the practices that Cali is having such great success with. I.E. One such program holds the smolts in the upstream water for a bit then trucks them downstream to open water where they can better survive. This allows for the smolts to avoid predation (think pike minnows, Cormorants, and of course crossing dams) which has increased returns by over 40%. Yes, over 40% increase in returns with no increase in the #'s of smolts introduced into the system. Seems like we should at least try.

some smolts have been  barged down the Columbia for years now, they are already doing this.

[WSU]

It's been done and the survival rate tracked.  If I recall correctly, it was not as good as is currently being achieved by increasing spill during the smolts' migration.