The Dungeness River has had some success in using a captive brood program to put Chinook back into the system. They started with eggs taken from redds with the fish raised in freshwater captivity for their entire life cycle. When ready to spawn, the eggs were taken and the fish were held to yearling status before release from the hatchery environment.

If I remember correctly, the run numbers were in double digits of spawning pairs when the project started. Now the returns are in the low hundreds of spawning pairs. Considering the parents of the releases never saw salt water, I'd suggest that there are some things that don't change the saltwater survival and return "desires" of the fish.

Supplemental egg take is occuring to provide a cushion against egg loss due to winter flooding.