The Wilson river near Tillamook has no native summer runs....or does it? For the second time I've hooked and release and unclipped summer fish and it was not an early winter fish either because of it's reddish tint. The latest one had a full and straight dorsal fin along with the adipose. A stray maybe? or can these hatchery fish indeed spawn in the wild? No one seems to have a concrete answer.
Stew

PS-Thanks Bob!

for Stew...
Nice post ....

Stew-
There are many documented cases of hatchery summer steelhead succesfully spawning in the wild...

There are a couple of rivers in the area that had natural anadramous fish barriers...the WDFW stepped in, dumped some hatchery smolts above these barriers, aided the adults over the barriers on their return and now we have healthy self-sustaining populations.

So if this can happen on a grand scale, I am sure it can happen with a few hatchery fish that decided river gravel was a little more romantic that old men in rubber gloves with plastic buckets!

Sparkey that is what has happend on this river. They dump the smolt way up on the upper river without any kind of barrier to keep them from spawning. This was a beautiful fish too! About 10lbs and flawless! The area fish bios don't seem to know. I'm sure a few hatchery fish get by without getting their adipose clipped but since the dorsal fin on this fish was perfect it made me wonder.

...plus do not forget, there is a certain amount of straying that occurs.

Take for example the Hoh River...does not get an official summer-run hatchery plant, but ever summer a good number of hatchery summer-runs are caught.

This straying does occur more often within hatchery populations but it does occur within wild populations as well.

To surely identify the origin of this fish, tissue from a fin would have to be collected and sent in for DNA analysis and compared with DNA of hatchery fish planted in the system.

One of my favorite rivers had a hatchery,operatining in the seventys.They shut it down twenty years ago but the fish return every year to the hatchery pool and the next hole up.They just spawn in the river now.

Why do they think that a hatchery fish needs a hatchery to reproduce?Reproduction is one of the strongest instincts out there.

Spark,
I am curious as to what riverd now have healthy "wild" runs of fish after helping them past the barrier...you can email me on that if you rather not post it here.

Also didn't the studies on the south puget sound naturally spawning chum runs show an average 17% stray rate?? I think they did, that is why I can't jump on the pure strain band wagon, you should know from your genetics classes what happens with continual breeding within the same gene pool.

JimB

Curious about what Aunty?

I can't speak for Sparkles, but I think one stream is the South Fork of the Sky... Sunset Falls being the barrier.

Hey! im not old yet and i work in a hatchery... Quit stereotyping! plus were plenty romantic with the fish

One of my favorite rivers has no summer hatchery program but they get 150-200 summers every year in the traps... some clipped some not

TTT

SOUTH FORK STILLAGUAMISH -- SUMMER STEELHEAD
Escapement -- Unknown. Spawning escapement is not monitored for this stock.
Description -- Mid-January to mid-April spawning period. A distinct stock based on the geographical isolation of the spawning population upstream of Granite Falls in the South Fork Stillaguamish River. This stock originated from hatchery plants in the mid-1950s and is managed only to provide a harvest fishery and has no escapement objective.
Origin and Production Type -- Non-native stock sustained by wild production.

CANYON CREEK -- SUMMER STEELHEAD
Escapement -- Unknown. Spawning escapement is not monitored for this stock, nor has an escapement goal been identified.
Description -- A distinct stock based on the geographical isolation of the spawning population. This stock primarily uses the forks of Canyon Creek for spawning and early rearing. Spawning period is unknown but probably similar to other summer steelhead stocks (February through April).
Origin and Production Type -- Mixed-origin (from commingled native and non-native stocks and/or mating between native and non-native stocks) stock sustained by wild production.

EDIT: Due to the efforts of the WSC and other anti-harvest preservationist organizations the introduced South Fork Stillaguamish steelhead are no longer managed only to provide a harvest fishery.

Hey Plunk -- long time no hear -- You been camped out on some Skagit R. sand bar? How's the 'catch and eat' program been going up there in skagit county??

No need to look for an explination. There most likely isnt one. It could be a stray, hatchery fish offspring, a very early winter run, Maybe it a sign of a healthy river system where the run is expanding.

We get fresh wild steelhead out here 12 months out of the year in some systems still in sustainably numbers. Other systems out here dont have that anymore but im sure they all did in the past before overharvest.

Plunk, Good to see your still around, The WSC is not a anti harvest group, please harvest all the hatchery fish you want that's what they're for.

BTW, A while back the WSC sent you a paper on the Biological & Economic Benefits of Wild Steelhead Release" free with the agreement you would read it and provide us with your comments, but never recieved any feedback, what happend?

Double Haul - Thanks for your interest.

The steelhead, referred to in the above quotes from SASSI, are wild fish of hatchery ancestry. In my opinion they are as valuable as native fish within their niche where anadromous stocks were unable to migrate before the fish ladder provided passage above the falls. This is just one example of how the introduction of hatchery fish can be beneficial. They are obviously able to successfully spawn and establish new stocks and contribute to the diversity of existing ones.

Click here to see previous post for further information.

Could the WSC be leaning towards advocating for the elimination of hatchery fish from most NW rivers? Your choices in associates and educators are suggestive of that possibility.

I have enjoyed reading your position paper cover to cover more than once and thank you for the opportunity. It is very informative and well composed.

Comments were not presented because the WSC bulletin board was removed from the www shortly after I received my copy. I have found your new bulletin board and have also glanced over others comments on the paper with interest and will add some of my own there and possibly here near future.

Plunk,
Thanks for the info, no the WSC is not advocating elimination of hatchery fish from most NW rivers. In fact, we see hatchery fish as being very important for future harvest opportunities. But, as our mission statement clearly states: “Hatchery programs must be closely examined and be carried out in such a manner that the negative impacts on wild fish are removed or minimized.” Further the WSC advocates “mass marking of all hatchery steelhead, and for science, not politics, to be the basis for the re-tooling of hatchery practices.”

The WSC Science and Education Committee is currently writing our position paper on hatchery reform.

If you have some suggestions for future presenters at our meetings we would welcome your ideas. Our “hidden agenda” is pretty simple- educating anglers to understand the issues facing wild steelhead and taking action to help them flourish.

Thanks for reading over the paper, you are right that our web forum was down for a time and we look forward to your comments.