Abstract
The release of hatchery reared salmonid smolts is a common management tool aimed at enhancing depleted wild stocks and maintaining fisheries throughout Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. In the Sacramento River watershed, smolts must migrate through the river, delta and estuary in order to successfully reach the Pacific Ocean. Migration success (success defined as apparent survival from one monitor location to another) may vary between species, year and habitat. We released 500 late-fall run Chinook salmon and 500 steelhead smolts in 2009 and 2010 in the Sacramento River (river kilometer 207). Each smolt was implanted with a coded ultrasonic tag, which was detected by an array of over 300 underwater receiver stations deployed throughout the system. Less than 25 % of fish migrated successfully to the Pacific Ocean in both years. We found that reach specific success was greater in the Delta in 2009 (>60 %) than in 2010 (<33 %), whereas this pattern was reversed in the Bay (<57 % in 2009, >75 % in 2010). Identifying the location, timing and causes of smolt mortality can lead to improved management of the resource.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this project was provided by the San Francisco Bay Long Term Management Study through the San Francisco District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. This project could not have been completed without the help and support of the following people: Ethan Mora, Mike Thomas, Phil Sandstrom, Cyril Michel, Arnold Ammann, Kurtis Brown, Scott Hamelburg, David Woodbury and members of the California Fish Tracking Consortium.
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Singer, G.P., Hearn, A.R., Chapman, E.D. et al. Interannual variation of reach specific migratory success for Sacramento River hatchery yearling late-fall run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) . Environ Biol Fish 96, 363–379 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-012-0037-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-012-0037-y