Originally Posted By: Chasin' Baitman
Salmo,

Thanks for your answer. I am interested to know though, about the specificity of the stocks. Are S fork stilly chinook viewed as a separate stock than N fork stilly chinook, and if so, why? And who is making that distinction?

I've heard alot about the 100 remaining S fork stilly chinook. Which makes me think they ARE viewed as separate. And that apparently it's hard to broodstock a population that small, which hampers hatchery-aided recovery(?)

So why couldn't the stilly be viewed as a single system and the fish in it as genetically similar *enough*. Then we'd have roughly 1000 fish to work with rather than 100.

I'm just asking as a guy who likes to fish for salmon, I obviously have no scientific background. I do want to know more though.


Short answer: No, you can't just combine them to make one bigger pop because the recovery plan for Puget Sound Chinook calls for the two pops to be recovered.


Longer answer: After the PS Chinook listing, NMFS developed their assessment of the historical pop structure for PS Chinook. This included the historical and present existence of a North and South Fork Stilli Chinook pops with evidence of genetic differences and run-timing differences (Early and late, read summer/fall). These populations both made their way into the PS Chinook recovery plan with individual objectives for recovery.