Stocking Young Atlantic Salmon Downstream Means Higher Survival Success
From NOAA Fisheries
from The Fishing Wire

When it comes to recovering endangered Atlantic salmon, it makes a difference where smolt stocking takes place along a river. A new model can help by evaluating estimated survival of smolts released at different stocking locations.

Stocking Green Lake National Fish Hatchery smolts in Maine’s Narraguagus River. Photo: NOAA Fisheries

Young Atlantic salmon smolt released at lower-river stocking sites on the Penobscot River are more likely to survive and enter the ocean than those released higher in the river system. They encounter fewer barriers such as man-made dams during their migration to the estuary, and their migration path is shorter. NOAA Fisheries scientists built a model that can help select release locations to improve survival of stocked smolt as they head for the ocean.

The 2018 Northeast Fisheries Science Center study, published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, highlights the continuing challenge to conserve this endangered species.

“This model is an important tool to support decision-making for the recovery of wild, self-sustaining Atlantic salmon populations,” said Justin Stevens, a fishery biologist at the Center’s Maine Field Station in Orono and lead author of the study. “Hatchery smolt stocking is a common strategy used in the program, and now we have a way to effectively evaluate its success.”

Using Historic Salmon Survival Rates to Improve Prospects for the Future

The researchers built a model to simulate historic survival of migrating Atlantic salmon smolt at different locations along the Penobscot River from 1970 through 2012, using existing studies of smolt survival. The model assessed the relative survival risks posed by three factors: dams, discharge into the river, and the length of the migration route.

By far, the number of dams encountered during downstream migration had the biggest effect on survival. The more dams the smolts encountered, the lower the survival rate.

A number of dams have been removed from the Penobscot River in the past few years. However, more than 100 man-made dams remain. Most are relative small and used for water storage or are remnants from 19th century industrial activities.

This study focused on 18 dams commissioned to generate hydroelectric power during the study period, for which hatchery records were also available. These dams are situated along primary salmon migration paths in the five sub-basins of the river.

Model Results Can Guide Management Decisions

“The information learned from this study can be used by state and federal managers to better inform future stocking practices and to work with the hydroelectric industry to minimize the impact of dams,” said Stevens.

This study provides a quantitative way to evaluate the effect of dams on smolt survival during downstream migration in the largest U.S. Atlantic salmon river.

The model calculates marine survival, from post-smolt to adult salmon. It accounts for losses during both freshwater and estuarine migration, and is an important new tool for making decisions about habitat improvement, fishery management, and Atlantic salmon recovery activities.

A Bit More About Endangered Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic salmon smolt migrate from freshwater river habitat downstream to the ocean. Many do not survive the journey past multiple dams or their time at sea.

If they do survive, as adults they need to migrate from their time in the ocean back to the river. Adults then swim upstream past dams to spawn and complete their life cycle. Making multiple trips during their lifetime further reduces the likelihood of repeat spawners, and that negatively affects population growth.

Historically, Atlantic salmon in the United States ranged from the Housatonic River of Long Island Sound to the Aroostook River in eastern Maine. There were an estimated 500,000 adult fish in precolonial days.

Today, U.S. Atlantic salmon are limited to eastern Maine and the population numbers fewer than 2,000 adult fish. The Penobscot River supports the largest population, aided by a hatchery-smolt stocking program that produces about 75 percent of the annual adult returns.

This year has been designated as International Year of the Salmon. It is the kickoff for an international effort though 2022 to bring countries together to share knowledge, raise public awareness, and take action to conserve and recover both Pacific and Atlantic salmon.

The Mind-Boggling Journeys of One Atlantic Salmon
By John Holyoke
from The Fishing Wire

“Charlie” the Atlantic salmon (right) swims among other salmon in a pool of the Sandy River in western Maine. Charlie is a repeat spawner, and was captured twice at Waterville’s Lockwood Dam, exactly two years apart. Photo Casey Clarke/Maine Department of Marine Resources

Your morning commute to work might be hectic and harrowing, but before you start feeling sorry for yourself consider the journeys that Charlie — the name given to a soon-to-be-famous Atlantic salmon — has taken over the past few years.

Charlie recently was captured in a fish lift at the Lockwood Dam on the Kennebec River in Waterville. That on its own is not a surprise. The fact the adult salmon was actually what’s called a “repeat spawner” and had been captured at the same facility exactly two years (and thousands of miles) earlier was grounds for celebration.

“This is the only repeat spawner we have ever had [in the 13 years since the Lockwood facility has been operational],” said Paul Christman, a marine scientist for the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Christman said that over the course of a year, all of Maine’s salmon rivers might see one repeat returnee, most of those counted on the state’s busiest salmon river, the Penobscot. This year, more than 1,000 salmon have returned to the Penobscot. Just 56 have been counted at Lockwood. Making Charlie particularly intriguing is the fact he’s either a naturally reared fish from eggs planted by fisheries personnel or a wild-spawned fish.

And the journeys that Charlie has made are mind-boggling, Christman said.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, young Atlantic salmon can travel more than 6,000 miles during their migration to and from the North Atlantic, where they will spend between one and three years before returning to their native rivers. That means Charlie might have 12,000 miles on his fins by now. He has surely earned a break, which he is currently taking.

Charlie was first caught on June 18, 2017, and had a radio tag and a “PIT” tag attached to him. The PIT tag allows scientists to identify him by a unique 16-digit number. The radio tag allowed them to track him until he regurgitated it at some point after he began his return to the Atlantic two years ago.

The crew’s radio tracked him to a pair of comfortable pools in the river where he spent the summer.

Then, after making his way back downriver (and over four hydroelectric dams), he headed back to sea where he flourished for two more years before swimming back to Lockwood Dam on the Kennebec.

An obliging crew then gave the salmon a ride back to the Sandy, and that’s where he remains, resting comfortably after his second grueling trip in two years.

“As of last Thursday, he was sitting in one of the pools that he sat in two years ago,” Christman said.

Christman said DMR personnel have snorkeled nearby and report that Charlie looks healthy — and big.

Jennifer Noll, another DMR fisheries scientist, reported that when Charlie was captured two years ago he was almost 29 inches long. Now, he measures nearly 34 inches from snout to tail.

Christman said many fish die in their natal rivers before even heading to sea once, and they face countless challenges while in the ocean. Upon their return to a river, they must overcome more obstacles and survive predators that would like to enjoy a salmon dinner.

The fact Charlie has made those grueling, life-threatening trips twice makes him a rare fish indeed.

“He has defied all the odds. He has actually survived an enormous amount of mortality,” Christman said. “He is at least two years older, three years older than all the other [salmon] in the Sandy River. This guy has seen it all and survived. It really is amazing.”

Christman thinks Charlie successfully spawned two years ago — spawning redds were found near where he was hanging out — and hopes he is able to do the same this year.

Passing along his genetics to future generations can’t hurt, after all.

“This guy really wins. I mean, he’s got it all,” Christman said. “It’s really amazing to see a fish that has been through it all and survived [all of those threats]. I just can’t fathom.”

“Charlie” the Atlantic salmon would have made his way up this part of the Kennebec River to reach the Lockwood Dam, both in 2017 and in 2019. A marvellous tale of a charismatic species making the Kennebec River a home for spawning. Photo Maranda Nemeth.

Hope for Idaho’s Salmon
by Chris Wood, President, Trout Unlimited
from The Fishing Wire

“I have concluded that I am going to stay alive long enough to see salmon return to healthy populations in Idaho.”

Those words by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) at a conference at the Andrus Center last week may do more to project the recovery of the imperiled Snake River salmon and steelhead than multiple lawsuits, five biological opinions, and a whopping $16 billion spent on a failed effort to recover Columbia and Snake river salmon and steelhead.

Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID) saying what needs to be said at an Andrus Center for the West event in Boise recently.

Twenty-eight years ago, after learning of the plight of “Lonesome Larry,” I dedicated my career to helping recover Idaho’s salmon and steelhead. Larry, a sockeye, managed to swim 800 miles, climbing 6,500 feet in elevation, crossing eight dams, countless predators—never feeding—to return to the lake he was born to have sex one time before he died. That didn’t happen—he was the only sockeye to return.

Wild salmon and steelhead in Idaho are on a path to extinction.

Before the construction of the four lower Snake dams, more than a million Snake River spring and summer Chinook and more than half-a-million steelhead returned to spawn. Today, those runs are a fraction of their historic abundance. In the 1950s, the Middle Fork of the Salmon was such a prolific fishery that anglers could keep two salmon per day for a five-week season. In 2017, fewer than 500 salmon returned to spawn in the Middle Fork – 1 percent of the historic runs.

Larry’s ancestors that gave Redfish Lake its name, once came in the tens of thousands. Last year, 134 returned.

Congressman Simpson rightly asks, “Why should Idaho bear all the costs of the Snake River dams and reap so few of its benefits?”

Half of all steelhead in the Columbia River system once returned to the Snake River in Idaho

The scientific evidence is overwhelming: after almost 30 years and billions of dollars spent on habitat restoration and techno-fixes at the dams, removal of the four lower Snake River dams is essential to salmon and steelhead recovery—adjustments will also be needed in hatchery, harvest and predator management.

Restoration, however, cannot simply be about fish. This hopeful and complex effort must be about people, too. Restoration of the Snake must ensure that farmers can irrigate and transport their crops. It must ensure that jobs are safe and energy supplies are reliable. It must help meet the social and economic priorities of local communities such as Lewiston. It must create robust, fishable, and harvestable populations of salmon and steelhead for recreational, tribal and commercial fishermen.

The fish are important; but people are, too.

While not himself calling for dam removal, Congressman Simpson’s willingness to ask the hard questions should result in an unbiased look at what is needed to bring back Idaho’s salmon legacy. U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) demonstrated the same type of leadership in developing the Idaho Roadless Rule which protects 9 million acres of incredible fish and wildlife habitat in the Gem State.

For three decades, we have accepted half-measures and lurched from crises to crises – unwilling to address the cause of the decline of Idaho’s magnificent salmon and steelhead. These fish are remarkably resilient. If given half a chance, they will return, but they are running out of time.

Read more like this at www.tu.org.

Working with Nature’s Engineers to Build Coho Salmon Habitat
NOAA partners managing an innovative pilot program in Oregon are constructing dam starter structures for beavers to finish building, creating slow water areas for juvenile Coho to thrive.
from The Fishing Wire

Analogs provide a solid foundation from which beavers can start building their dams. Photo: Upper Nehalem Watershed Council

On the Oregon coast, NOAA and partners are leveraging the strong engineering skills of their beloved state animal to restore important habitat for threatened coho salmon and other species.

Supported by NOAA, our partners at the Wild Salmon Center and Upper Nehalem Watershed Council are embarking on a pilot project. It will assist beavers with building dams in key areas of tributaries where juvenile migrating fish grow. Once built, beaver dams create slower moving sections of streams for juvenile fish to use as habitat.

To construct the beaver dam analog, a row of wooden posts is anchored upright in the stream bed.

Similar to estuaries and river delta habitats, the slow-moving pools of water behind beaver dams offer juvenile salmon critical time for feeding and growing before their trip to the ocean. Unlike man-made barriers to fish passage, adult salmon are able pass beaver dams when they migrate back upstream to spawn.

With these pilot projects, NOAA and partners are building foundation structures, called “analogs.” They are placed in areas where beavers once lived, and where the stream grade and size are optimal for juvenile salmon habitat. Think of them as the foundations of a home.

The slow moving pools of water created by beaver dams provide habitat for threatened coho salmon and other species.

Once we introduce the analogs to ideal areas, beavers find them and build out the rest of their new homes. Rows of wooden posts intertwined with tree branches and straw give our furry restoration partners a solid foundation from which to start building their dams. We also ensure they have plenty of food sources by planting willows and other tasty foods beavers like while removing invasive plants from the areas.

These innovative but simple projects are turning back the clock to times where beavers freely built dams along streams and rivers in Oregon watersheds. Modern development has straightened stream channels and increased the amount and speed of water flow. This makes it hard for juvenile salmon to rest during freshwater stages of their early lives. This habitat loss for beavers and salmon has created population declines for both species.

These pilots are one piece of a larger effort, the Oregon Coast Coho Recovery Plan, to restore Oregon Coast coho salmon habitat. We are providing funding and technical support to the Wild Salmon Center to implement a series of habitat restoration projects across the Oregon Coast. We are working with a variety of partners including local and state governments, non-profit organizations, tribes, and other federal agencies. Together these coordinated efforts are targeting restoration where it will have the greatest benefit and make the biggest impact for threatened coho salmon.

Hundreds of Tennessee’s Only Native Trout Species Returned to an Appalachian Stream
from The Fishing Wire

Chattanooga, Tenn. – Winding under a thick canopy of trees and down a stairstep of boulder-strewn waterfalls, Little Stoney Creek’s descent through Cherokee National Forest is the idyllic picture of Appalachian Mountain splendor.

With its dappled pockets of sunlight and shade and frigid water, this pristine stream is an ideal habitat for Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. Also lovingly referred to by scientists and sport fishers alike as “Brookies,” this region-specific strain of Brook Trout is the Southeast’s only native trout species.

With blue skies patchily peeking through the trees overhead, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute Reintroduction Biologist Meredith Harris and Reintroduction Assistant Hayley Robinson carefully navigate the stream across moss-slick rocks and trees.

Their progress through the rushing stream is made all the more difficult thanks to the shifting weight of the thick plastic bags they’re carrying. These awkward burdens are filled with water and — most importantly — dozens of two-inch long juvenile Brookies bound for reintroduction into the creek after months of attentive care at the Aquarium’s freshwater science center in Chattanooga.

Harris and Robinson, along with two other reintroduction assistants, Avery Millard and Anna Quintrell, have traveled hundreds of miles to reach this beautiful, remote waterway. Along with representatives from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the U.S. Forest Service and members of Trout Unlimited, the biologists have convened to return 389 juvenile Brookies to waters that are their ancestral birthright.

“You know, today is the day when we really get to see what it’s all about,” Harris says, smiling. “It’s a great day; it’s the best day.”

Despite the treacherous footing, she and Robinson are all smiles as they slosh along, pausing occasionally by patches of comparatively still water. Dipping into their bags, they deposit nets full of baby trout into these calmer pools. As they watch the tiny fish swim away, their expressions mix equal measures of pride and joy.

“We work really hard back at the facility and spend a lot of time working with these animals,” Harris says. “To be able to come out here and watch them swim away into the water, to fulfill the ecological role that they were meant to, that’s what makes it all worth it. That just really brings the purpose home for me.”

Thanks to clear-cutting in the 1900s and the introduction of larger, competing, non-native species like Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout, the ruby-bellied and golden-speckled Southern Appalachian Brook Trout now occupies less than 15 percent of its historical range.

Since the 1980s, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has been working to restore the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout to cold water streams like Little Stoney Creek that flow through the species’ native range. In 2012, the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute joined this effort, helping to raise the juveniles in propagation facilities at its freshwater science center near downtown Chattanooga.

Each fall, Conservation Institute biologists collect eggs spawned by a broodstock of wild-caught adult Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. During a month-long incubation, scientists tend to these eggs until the young emerge, still attached to large, nutrient-rich yolk sacs. After another month, these “sac fry” become free-swimming and are able to eat.

Biologists care for these juveniles throughout the winter and early spring until the diminutive fish are about two inches long, just large and hardy enough to survive in the wild. Including the current batch of juveniles, the Aquarium has raised and reintroduced about 3,500 Southern Appalachian Brook Trout to Little Stoney Creek and other waterways.

This effort is fully financed by the Appalachian Chapter of Trout Unlimited through funds raised by the sale of special vanity license plates adorned with the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. In 2018, Trout Unlimited donated $11,170, the organization’s largest single grant since it began financial support of the program in 2014.

“The Tennessee Aquarium is a natural partner for us,” says Steve Fry, the chapter’s president. “The mission of Trout Unlimited is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. This project allows us to coordinate efforts with Trout Unlimited Chapters in northeast Tennessee to bring back an iconic species.”

At Little Stoney Creek, representatives from the Overmountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited are wading alongside Harris and Robinson, enthusiastically accepting offers from the biologists to release some of the fry. To them, Brookies aren’t just another fish to try and catch; they’re a part of the region’s natural heritage.

“The Southern Appalachian strain of Brook Trout is the only trout species in this area that God put here himself,” says Overmountain Trout Unlimited Chapter President Ryan Turgeon. “A lot of different organizations came together to raise funds, and a lot of grant money and hours were put in to get something like this done.

“It’s great to see everyone come together — different age groups, different diversities — to return these fish to the stream. It was really great to see that.”

To learn more about the Tennessee Aquarium’s work to restore the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout, visittnaqua.org/protecting-animals/southern-appalachian-brook-trout. For more information about the Appalachian Chapter of Trout Unlimited, visit appalachiantu.org.

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YEEaLyuS3A&authuser=0

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About the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute

The Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute is a leader in freshwater science. For more than 20 years, our researchers have been working to better understand and protect the Southeast’s abundance of aquatic wildlife. The region’s rich diversity is part of our natural heritage – a gift to be discovered, appreciated and protected.

Learn more about the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute online at tnaqua.org/protect-freshwater.

Get updates about our field conservation and research projects by following the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute on Facebook and Twitter.