10 September
2002
Media Contact:
Charles Hudson, CRITFC,
(503) 731-1257
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Snake River fall chinook
on road to recovery
Supplementation program
is working, fishery managers say
Portland, Oregon
- The Nez Perce
Tribe's hatchery supplementation program is being credited for this
year's fall chinook salmon count at Lower Granite Dam, which is set
to break the 10,000 mark and another record.
Yesterday, 604 fall chinook were counted at the dam, located 20 miles
northwest of Lewiston, Idaho, on the Snake River. That's higher than
the total fall season counts of each of six individual years since
the dam was built in 1975.
"For most years, the counts have been less than 1,000," said Stuart
Ellis, fishery scientist with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission (CRITFC).
Snake River fall chinook have been listed as "threatened" under the
Endangered Species Act since 1992.
Ellis says this year's cumulative count at the dam already makes the
fall chinook run the third highest, and it's expected to become the
second highest run when counts are taken tomorrow. In fact, it is
only 100 fish off from the No. 2 mark.
"Last year, we set a record run with a dam count of 8,900 fall chinook,
and this year will be more," Ellis noted. "In 2000, we had 3,500 fish,
and that was a record run."
Ellis and other fishery managers attribute the high numbers to the
Nez Perce Tribe's supplementation program, which has outplanted millions
of fall chinook yearlings and subyearlings from the Lyons Ferry Hatchery
throughout the upper Snake River since 1996.
The program began as a result of the 1994 litigation and a subsequent
negotiated settlement between the parties to United States v. Oregon,
the federal court case regarding the tribes' treaty fishing rights.
In 1995, the parties agreed to begin outplanting hatchery-reared Snake
River fall chinook above Lower Granite Dam. Since 1996, fall chinook
have been outplanted to Pittsburgh Landing and Captain John's Rapids,
both on the mainstem Snake River, and at Big Canyon on the Clearwater
River.
The Nez Perce Tribe has taken the lead in the Snake River fall chinook
supplementation program at these facilities. On Oct. 9, the tribe
will dedicate the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery on the Clearwater River.
With the addition of the hatchery, the Snake River fall chinook supplementation
program will outplant more than 4 million fall chinook above Lower
Granite Dam in 2003.
Mike Matylewich, head of CRITFC's fish management department, also
credited a scaled-down Canadian fishery off Vancouver Island and "a
couple good water years" between 1996 and 1998 for the big returns
to the upper Snake River.
"All of that pushed things in the right direction," Matylewich said.
In addition to increased returns, counts of redds--nests of fish eggs
covered with gravel, indicating a spawning area--have increased each
year as well, said Dave Johnson, fisheries program manager for the
Nez Perce Tribe
"We're getting a good distribution of those redds," he said. "The
supplementation fish are returning to the release areas and spawning,
indicating that this cooperative rebuilding effort is leading to recovery."
Johnson says progeny of outplanted fish also are returning to spawn.
"We believe we're going to see more of that every year from now on."
The National Marine Fisheries Service continues to develop its recovery
plan for Snake River fall chinook, but the stock likely will achieve
recovery before the plan is completed, according to Don Sampson, CRITFC
executive director.
"The Nez Perce Tribe has worked diligently for many years to bring
this essential Snake River species back to its historic numbers, and
its efforts are finally paying off," Sampson said.
Fall chinook continue to rush up the Columbia River and its tributaries
in large numbers. More than 660,000 fish are expected to reach the
mouth of the river, including nearly 274,000 "upriver bright" fall
chinook that spawn primarily in the Hanford Reach.
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About CRITFC
The Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is
the technical support and coordinating agency for fishery management
policies of the Columbia River Basin's four treaty tribes: the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.
CRITFC, formed in 1977, employs biologists, other scientists, public
information specialists, policy analysts and administrators who work
in fisheries research and analyses, advocacy, planning and coordination,
harvest control and law enforcement. |
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