OP Steelhead are not Endangered
- Thread starter doublespey
- Start date
HauntedByWaters
Life of the Party
WA actually has approval to start brood stock programs but groups like the Wild Steelhead Conservancy lobby to not have them happen. The approval is from the state and feds so it’s not that hard to get some going. There is a lot of money pushing ideological stances in the world today by people that prefer to fish by helicopter.
Nooksack has approval to start a brood stock programs, the facilities are ready, and volunteers lined up to help but it’s not happening because of lobbying.
In light of recent history of Washington broodstock programs and their lack of demonstrable success I would rather see the money go to monitoring the Skagit/Sauk C&R season.
Although it's frustrating to bust your butt hiking in to a normally secluded run and finding a boat planted there with two guys working it.
HauntedByWaters
Life of the Party
I would too. I’m not really a supporter of brood stock for the reasons you mentioned. My point was that we do have options like that available but there are powerful groups fishing them and that in this case the government isn’t the problem.
Although I will say, how is it the Oregon can fund brood programs when we can’t even fund a CnR program? It’s wild to me that such a wealthy state as WA can’t fund CnR fisheries. Oregon bad far better longer fisheries for sports anglers at this point. Why?
There is no co-management. They also have a state income tax. And the fish are in a different geographical location. All possibly contribute.
Anyone who has been paying attention understands that the advantage of anadromy is being lessened in the warming, less productive ocean and from competition from record-setting numbers of pink salmon (thanks in part to extensive hatchery inputs from the State of Alaska). But there are also changes in hydrology that act to impact survival of resident and kelt steelhead. Taken together, real steelhead recovery requires addressing root causes, not short-sighted biological band-aids. We need habitat restoration, thoughtful harvest management, and honest reckoning with the environmental factors driving declines.
For sure it is super frustrating although I greatly reduce that chance by only doing the real but busters at dawn and always a good distance downstream from any possible launch or put ins either developed or not also the rivers I focus on these days don't have sled traffic so I don't have to worry about an upstream waterborne incursion! In the evenings I'm focused on the more upstream reaches nearer the launch points and the boats are generally long gone with foot traffic greatly diminished due to fatigue, demoralization, cold, hangover or whatever. The last couple hours right up to darkness can be good for a variety of reasons. Not an absolute or perfect strategy but works well for me. Good luck out there!
It would be an interesting, though impossible, experiment to go back in time, not list Puget Sound Chinook, and then let us proceed to current time and compare! While one can lament their lack of recovery, my bet would be on a far more dire situation without the oversight that comes with ESA listing. Note that this particular salmon species is declining across its entire range. Chinook, like steelhead, spend more time at sea and live on the upper part of the marine food chain, while large numbers of chum and the ever-expanding pink salmon forage at the lower end. The total biomass of salmon in the north Pacific is at record high abundance - the result of a mix of changing thermal habitat and the purposeful influx of hatchery pinks and chums. Changes in hydrology and stream temperatures are also key factors, especially for chinook and steelhead that have more extended freshwater residency than the other salmon species. And let's not underestimate the insidious genetic impact from hatchery practices that cannot avoid the production of less fit fish at a time that is more demanding.
Case in point: The number of coho salmon returning to Oregon’s coastal rivers has improved dramatically in recent years, to the point that they may qualify for removal from the federal Endangered Species Act list in coming years. Their recovery is the result of improved habitat, including removal of barriers, even in the face of less favorable ocean conditions. And no hatcheries!
Surprised nobody has mentioned the success of the Snider Creek broodstocking program that was run mainly by the OP guides until DFW ended it. The Quill also deals with co-managers and the same ocean they all share.
I'm intrigued by the possibility of successful broodstock programs. But these decisions are IMO far too political, sounds like a couple senators are using this to 'bait' the fishing crowd and hope to use it to expand their voter support. And I'm sure the wild fish purist groups will have their lawyers ready to sue.
On another note - I don't know about the rest of you but all through the 90s and early 2000s I rarely if ever encountered a small Rainbow Trout (that wasn't an outmigrating smolt) on the lower S rivers in the winter. Occasionally you'd run into one or two when salmon were spawning, especially in the smaller tributaries. But what I'm seeing, particularly this year, is large numbers of Rainbows in the 15 - 20" range that look like Rogue half pounders.
Maybe these fish got the message that it's just not worth fighting the seals and cormorants to get to the salt. Or maybe they're adapting to changing river conditions resulting from global warming. But they're not in the lower river for salmon spawn, most of tht was washed away in the last flood.
I'm intrigued by the possibility of successful broodstock programs. But these decisions are IMO far too political, sounds like a couple senators are using this to 'bait' the fishing crowd and hope to use it to expand their voter support. And I'm sure the wild fish purist groups will have their lawyers ready to sue.
On another note - I don't know about the rest of you but all through the 90s and early 2000s I rarely if ever encountered a small Rainbow Trout (that wasn't an outmigrating smolt) on the lower S rivers in the winter. Occasionally you'd run into one or two when salmon were spawning, especially in the smaller tributaries. But what I'm seeing, particularly this year, is large numbers of Rainbows in the 15 - 20" range that look like Rogue half pounders.
Maybe these fish got the message that it's just not worth fighting the seals and cormorants to get to the salt. Or maybe they're adapting to changing river conditions resulting from global warming. But they're not in the lower river for salmon spawn, most of tht was washed away in the last flood.
Doublespey-
After the first decade of the Snider Creek program thanks to the monitoring going on then, I was able compare the return rates of the Chambers Creel/early winter smolts and the Snider Creek smolts. The Chambers fish returned at a much higher rate than the Snider Creek fish. Not coming close to matching the Chambers return rates is not my definition of successful program, especially given the mining of the wild population to acquire the brood stock.
Hardly surprised that you don't seem small rainbows during the winter. As the water temperatures drop in the late fall to below the mid 40s the young fry and parr take up residency in complex habitat structures (log jams, boulder complexes, etc.) during the daylight hours. Those young fish during the day are literally buried in those structures and as such are not available to the angler.
I suspect that the bulk of those 15-to-20-inch fish are resident rainbows. Would be interested in what systems you saw those fish. With the poor marine survival of steelhead smolts in the Puget Sound basin I think it is well passed the time to emphasis management for the O. mykiss life history that do not migrate to the salt.
curt
Others fishing the OP have also noted seeing 15-20" resident trout! The dynamic life history of anadromous rainbow trout, a.k.a. steelhead, includes the 'half pounder' phenomenon found in northern California and southern Oregon (and Kamchatka). It is proposed that these fish are returning to freshwater because of less favorable ocean conditions* - a survival strategy for fish who choose to retreat into local rivers to avoid a warming ocean in autumn. I raised this issue with coastal biologists, suggesting that indeed given the warming and lower productive conditions expected with the changing (warming) climate, it might be expected to see more incidence of 'half pounders.'
*Hayes, S.A., A.J. Ammann, J.A. Harding, J.L. Hassrick, L. deWitt, and C.A. Morgan. 2016. Observations of steelhead in the California Current lead to a marine-based hypothesis for the “half-pounder” life history, with climate change implications for anadromy. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. 6: 97–105. doi:10.23849/npafcb6/97.105.
SSPey
loco alto!
I agree that ESA listing helps, but for Oregon coho, the cessation of commercial harvest has been a *big* reason for their recovery (in addition to habitat improvements and less hatchery and mixed-stock fisheries)
Chris Bellows
Steelhead
I would love to see actual data on these wonderful broodstock programs. Are they increasing wild runs, or just providing feel good harvestable fish while mining wild fish?
Did a little poking around on the WWW and found the following"
"Angler Harvest of Alsea River hatchery winter steelhead" an Evaluation of wild broodstock collection techniques", ODFW 2020
One of the findings was: "Broodstock collection methon had a strong effect on the number of adult steelhead produced, whereby angler caught broodstock produced significantly fewer adult returns to both the creel and the trap".
One of the popular wild broodstock myths debunked?
One of the things notice by hatchery managers here in Washington working with wild steelhead broodstock was the juvenile fish were much more spooky which result in more difficulty in getting the fish to target size.
One advantage that potential Oregon programs is the earlier spawning of their wild fish. Peak spawning is reported to be in February and March, a couple months earlier than in North Puget Sound basins like the Skagit.
Curt
"Angler Harvest of Alsea River hatchery winter steelhead" an Evaluation of wild broodstock collection techniques", ODFW 2020
One of the findings was: "Broodstock collection methon had a strong effect on the number of adult steelhead produced, whereby angler caught broodstock produced significantly fewer adult returns to both the creel and the trap".
One of the popular wild broodstock myths debunked?
One of the things notice by hatchery managers here in Washington working with wild steelhead broodstock was the juvenile fish were much more spooky which result in more difficulty in getting the fish to target size.
One advantage that potential Oregon programs is the earlier spawning of their wild fish. Peak spawning is reported to be in February and March, a couple months earlier than in North Puget Sound basins like the Skagit.
Curt
SSPey
loco alto!
Wild broodstock fish are more hassle to propagate than traditional hatchery fish, but this study was all wild broodstock. It compared 2 wild broodstock collection methods: angler-caught vs terminal-caught.
In Oregon, ODFW allows certain guides to collect wild broodstock while fishing. This study found lower productivity when wild adults were collected by anglers fishing, compared to the usual wild adult collection methods (below natural barriers and in fish ladders, higher in the system). The lower productivity of angler-caught adults is thought to reflect guides collecting fish that were too bright, from low in river systems, which required extended holding times in the hatchery before they were ready to spawn. To address this, guides are now instructed to only collect ripe fish, and ODFW staff will turn back angler-caught wild broodstock if they’re deemed too fresh. The study quoted is not an analysis of wild broodstock programs overall, just a small test of how to collect the wild fish used for propagation in broodstock programs.
What’s missing are good studies of consequences of wild broodstock programs that evaluate all of the parts (genetic, population, etc) as they affect both viability and fisheries. The wild broodstock programs in Oregon are flying blind.
re: peak timing Feb and March … depends a lot on the river, but yes a little earlier than PS rivers because the OR coast rivers are not fed by snowmelt (i.e., they get warmer and lower earlier)
fwiw, I’m not a fan, just sharing what I know from this neck of the woods.
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