OncyT:
Thanks for the additional background info which expands upon what I generally understood.
Bottom line seems to be that the White River springer stock has been "saved"; that is, back from the brink through efforts of the Muckleshoot tribe and WDFW and both keep producing and releasing hatchery origin yet unclipped hatchery fish.
In looking at the 2023 Future Brood Document Final it shows 600,000 eggs taken and 550,000 shipped. There is a Memo notation as follows:
"Program implementation is dependent on legal authority and funding. Excess eggs taken will be made available for W.R. SP CR Recovery Program pending funding."
Do those excess eggs constitute the 50K shown in the report as not having been shipped? Whose funding is paying for the 550K? And what happens to them if no funding? Dumped??
Just glancing at the Future Brood Document, it appears that nearly every WDFW program has a memo that says "Program implementation is dependent on legal authority and funding," so that comment isn't informative at all. The 50K difference in eggs taken and eggs shipped is just the normal egg loss (~9% in this case) from just fertilized (green) eggs to eyed eggs that would be shipped to Hupp Springs. The other part of the memo just seems to say that if additional eggs are taken at Minter, they could be made available for use in the White River in a tribal recovery program. Typically, if a hatchery already has its egg take and still has un-spawned fish, they would just be surplused in the round. I don't know what the current policy is regarding rounding out un-spawned fish for this population. Generally though there would never be "surplus" eggs from a population that is subject of a recovery program. A use of some sort would generally be found to prevent surplusing anything.
(Edit: Sorry, I just noticed that fry are transferred to Hupp Springs not eyed eggs, but it just represents normal loss during incubation as D.B. said)
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