Originally Posted By: Smalma

If you click on appendix C you'll find the escapement data base for both the North and South Fork Chinook stocks.

Some low points -
The South Fork stock has been hovering below 400 spawners a year since the start of the data base - 1974!

It was mentioned that there all ready is a brood stock program with the North Fork population. That program with a release goal of 200,000 smolts has been in effect for 25 years with minimal improvements in wild returns. Again from appendix C you'll see that since that program started roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the spawners are from that program.


OK Curt I took a peek at Appendix C

Click here for Appendix C, folks

YIKES! Not pretty.

The NF hatchery program did not start seeing a full complement adult age classes returning until about 1989-1990. They had ONE good production year of hatchery recruits which brought back about 353 fish in 1991. Must have been pretty encouraging to see that, but reality quickly set in when the bottom dropped out on the initial gains the following year. Overall production even with the aide of the hatchery (natural plus hatchery) seems to be just slightly above replacement since 1993. On average, hatchery-born spawners made up about 36.4% of the run beyond 1991. And that is with a recruit ratio from hatchery production of nearly 3.5! I estimated that by dividing the 11-yr average hatchery return of 347 (between 1992 and 2002) by the 100 fish required for broodstock each year = 3.47.

Pretty amazing how well the real life NF experience tracks with the hypothetical River Zip scenario I painted.
_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!