Monitor Natural Escapement and Productivity of John Day Basin Spring Chinook

Project # 199801600

Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

James RuzyckiRichard CarmichaelWayne WilsonTerra Lang SchultzDerek Wiley

Salmonid Productivity, Escapement, Trend, and Habitat Monitoring in the John Day River Basin

Project # 199801600

Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

James RuzyckiRichard CarmichaelWayne WilsonTerra Lang SchultzDerek Wiley

Columbia Plateau

Objectives

• Provide accurate and precise status and trend data for Chinook and steelhead of the John Day River basin.

– Escapement estimates

– Population characteristics» Age composition

» Distribution

– Smolt-to-adult returns (SAR)

– Smolt production

– Habitat monitoring

Methods

• Spawning ground surveys• Escapement• Distribution• Age composition• Stray rates

• Seining and Rotary Screw Traps • SAR

– PIT tagging– Dam detections

• Smolt Production– Mark recapture

• Steelhead Status• EMAP• ODFW Aquatic Inventories

Smolt collection points

Results

• Chinook spawning ground surveys• Documented redds in new locations• Trend monitoring• Basin-wide escapement estimates• Age structure• GIS database• Stray rates

Spring Chinook Redd Counts

Year

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Nu

mbe

r of

Red

ds

0

500

1000

1500

2000

IndexCensus

Results

• Chinook spawning ground surveys• Documented redds in new locations• Trend monitoring• Basin-wide escapement estimates• Age structure• GIS database• Stray rates

Spring Chinook Escapement

Number of Redds

Year North Fork

Middle Fork

Mainstem

Total Escapement

2000 929 569 381 1,879 5,637

2001 1,077 354 432 1,863 5,589

2002 1,057 391 507 1,955 5,865

2003 858 236 323 1,417 4,251

Results

• Chinook spawning ground surveys• Documented redds in new locations• Trend monitoring• Basin-wide escapement estimates• Age structure• GIS database• Stray rates

MEPS length (mm)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

Per

cent

fre

que

ncy

0

10

20

30

40age 2age 3age 4age 5

Adult Chinook Size Distribution

Chinook % Age Composition

Year Age 3 Age 4 Age 5

1998 2.9 81.6 15.5

1999 6.3 89.2 4.5

2000 1.8 96.9 1.3

2001 2.7 89.5 7.8

2002 2.7 94.3 3.0

2003 4.3 83.2 12.6

Results

• Chinook spawning ground surveys• Documented redds in new locations• Trend monitoring• Basin-wide escapement estimates• Age structure• GIS database• Stray rates

Results

• Chinook spawning ground surveys• Documented redds in new locations• Trend monitoring• Basin-wide escapement estimates• Age structure• GIS database• Stray rates

Year Carcasses Marked Fish %

1998 345 0 0.0

1999 405 4 1.0

2000 1,530 17 1.1

2001 1,355 10 0.7

2002 988 10 1.0

2003 836 29 3.5

Chinook Strays

Results

• Smolt seining and trapping• SAR from PIT tagging

• Basin-wide production

• Age structure of steelhead smolts

Spring ChinookSmolt-to-Adult Returns

# Returning Adults

CohortTag Year

# tagged Age 3 Age 4 Age 5 SAR

1998 2000 1,852 4 112 28 7.8%

1999 2001 3,893 7 80 15 2.6%

2000 2002 4,000 5 86

2001 2003 6,147 5

2002 2004 4,017

Summer SteelheadSmolt-to-Adult Returns

# Returning Adults

Tag Year

# tagged 2002 2003 SAR

2001 435 1 5 1.4%

2002 --

2003 144

2004 3,668

Results

• Smolt seining and trapping• SAR from PIT tagging

• Basin-wide production

• Age structure of steelhead smolts

Smolt Production

Year Abundance 95% CL’s

2001 92,922 79,258-111,228

2002 103,097 90,280-119,774

2003 83,394 76,739-91,734

Results

• Smolt seining and trapping• SAR from PIT tagging

• Basin-wide production

• Age structure of steelhead smolts

Steelhead Smolt Size Distribution

Fork length (mm)

75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275

Per

cent

freq

uenc

y

0

10

20

30

40

50

n = 103age 3age 2age 1

Results

• Steelhead Status• EMAP sampling protocol

• Spawner surveys

• Juvenile surveys

• Habitat

• ODFW Aquatic Inventories

Steelhead EMAPSample Sites

Conclusions

• Monitoring project• Subbasin-wide

• Columbia Basin comparisons• CSS

• Long-term dataset• Chinook and steelhead