Category Archives: Hatcheries

Barging Hatchery Smolts to the Bay

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In this blog I often recommend barging hatchery and even wild salmon from spawning rivers to the Bay up to 200 miles or more over conventional trucking or direct releases from hatcheries. The theory is that continuous recirculation of water in the barge (or boat) holding tank helps the young salmon remember from where they came and imprint the route back to their home river or hatchery.  Trucking directly to the Bay is believed to cause straying to non-natal rivers, resulting unnatural mixing of stocks, hatchery fish straying into wild fish spawning rivers, and less salmon returning to their home hatcheries where their eggs may be needed to meet quotas.  It is well documented that trucking and pen acclimation significantly increases the contribution of hatchery smolts to the ocean fishery up to two or three fold or more.  Concern over straying has kept the practice to a minimum.

Well it turns out from studies conducted with tagged hatchery salmon beginning with releases in 2008 that trucking, at least of American and Feather hatchery smolts, does not lead to significant amounts of straying.  Also, barging does not significantly reduce the already low straying rate.  So trucking to Bay net pens for acclimation remains the chosen strategy for the two largest State hatcheries, and probably the other two on the Mokelumne and Merced rivers.

The jury is still out on the Coleman and Livingston Stone federal hatcheries near Redding.  Straying rates are higher and the benefits of trucking over 200 miles seem questionable.  One concern I have is the high straying rate encountered for Coleman (Battle Creek) fish includes fish that move past Battle Creek further up in the Sacramento River and its upper tributaries.  Most of the spawning fish in these areas come from Coleman and Livingston Stone national fish hatcheries.  Because Coleman was built to mitigate for the loss of fish to those areas, I question their inclusion in the straying estimates.  The USFWS, which manages the two hatcheries, continues to be reluctant to truck and barge fish.

Though barging may not be needed for the Feather and American River hatcheries, it still holds potential for improving survival and reducing straying overall.  So far, there is no evidence that barging improves survival over trucking to Bay net pens.  I reviewed subsequent tag returns for a barge release group in early May 2012 with returns from two net pen groups released at the same time in the Bay.  I found the subsequent return percentage of the barge group  to be in between the two trucked pen release groups.  In the notes of the barge release, high predation by birds was noted.  In the photo of a barge release below many birds can be seen.  I wonder if the barge release would also benefit from the same pen acclimation that is employed after trucking, which significantly improves trucked fish release survival and subsequent contribution to the fishery.  (Note: I have been present at numerous truck releases to the Bay and have observed obvious extreme predation on the disoriented and confused hatchery fish, often released into warmer, saltier water than was present at the hatchery by a horde of well-trained and waiting birds and predatory fish.  Release to net pens at variable locations for acclimation and tow to open waters for underwater release seemed to greatly reduce predation, which proved true in subsequent tag returns.)

A closer look at the tag-release-recovery data and further experimentation would better answer the questions, concerns, and hypotheses.  There were nine barged groups released into the Bay from 2012-2014.  With some tags still out or not processed (tags are in noses of adult fish returns 2-4 years after release), information continues to come in.  The nearly million or so coded-wire-tags released from the nine barge groups swam with approximately 30 million other tagged fish from the six Central Valley hatcheries.  Furthermore, records are meticulously kept with other tagged groups from Washington and Oregon, as well as from other California watersheds (e.g., Klamath), by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.  An example of the type of information available is shown in the map-chart below for just the one barge release group from 2012.  The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has its own team and program to keep track of California immense database on releases and recoveries.  The Department’s report from November 2015 provides an excellent review of the whole process and results to date.

Barge in SF Bay

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Hatchery Reform and the Coleman National Fish Hatchery – Adaptive Management Plan

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The Coleman National Fish Hatchery (CNFH) on lower Battle Creek near Redding, CA (see map below) was constructed in 1942 to mitigate for the Shasta Dam project on the Sacramento built just upstream from Redding. It annually produces 12,000,000 fall-run salmon smolts and a million late–fall-run salmon smolts. Operation of CNFH is in need of reform because it fails to meet its mitigation goal and because it may interfere with the Battle Creek Restoration Program (BCRP1).

Efforts to improve salmon runs in recent drought years by trucking smolts to the lower river and Bay-Delta have resulted in increased straying of CNFH adult salmon to other Central Valley Rivers.2 Releasing millions of smolts into lower Battle Creek at the hatchery negatively affects wild smolts emigrating from Battle Creek through competition and stimulation of an annual spring striped bass feeding frenzy in the Sacramento River.3 Straying also limits adult salmon return to the hatchery and in some years makes it difficult for the hatchery to meet egg quotas. Plans to reduce these conflicts have drawn criticism from fishermen groups4 because of the potential of reducing smolt production and survival, and subsequent fishery harvests. CNFH production likely contributes a third or more of California’s ocean and freshwater salmon catch, and is a major contributor to natural salmon spawning in the Central Valley.

Recommendations

  1. In the Central Valley Salmon Recovery Plan (NMFS 2009/2011, p. 201), NMFS suggests moving the production hatchery to the Sacramento River from Battle Creek to reduce conflicts. The existing hatchery could be used as a conservation hatchery to support recovery of wild Battle Creek salmon and steelhead.
  2. Fall-run salmon smolt production should be trucked/barged to the Bay to maximize contribution to fisheries, recognizing substantial straying of fall-run occurs throughout the Central Valley. Barging smolts from above the mouth of the Feather River to the Bay should reduce straying to the Feather, American, and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries.
  3. Fall-run CNFH fry can be trucked/barged to high quality lower river floodplain and tidal estuary habitats historically important to fall-run, but presently unavailable or unreachable. Such habitats were important and reachable before the dams were built.
  4. Late-fall-run and steelhead smolts should be released at the hatchery in wet winters, but barged to the Bay in dry years.

Coleman National Fish Hatchery Map

Lake Davis Sierra Trout Fishing

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Typical “trophy-sized” rainbow trout caught (and released) in May 2016 from Lake Davis. (Jon Baiocchi photo )

Typical “trophy-sized” rainbow trout caught (and released) in May 2016 from Lake Davis. (Jon Baiocchi photo1)

Lake Davis is a popular Sierra trout fishing destination in Plumas County near the town of Portola, California. Lake Davis was created in 1966 when the California Department of Water Resources dammed Grizzly Creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork Feather River, as part of State Water Project. The lake is perhaps best known for its decade-long battle over northern pike extermination efforts by CDFW that ended successfully nearly a decade ago.

Controversy now returns to the lake’s fishery, because catch rates for trout have plummeted again, similar to their decline when pike spread in the lake. This time, the problem seems to be either over-harvest by fishermen or cutbacks in CDFW’s stocking program since the huge hatchery plantings that followed the poisoning of pike (and trout) in the lake a decade ago. Did fishermen become spoiled and harvest too many fish? Or has the state become stingy with its fishery stocking and management programs?

Some speculate the state has become vindictive to ongoing lawsuits brought on by the town government by holding back on stocking. Others note that overall hatchery production, especially of the popular Eagle-Lake strain used in Lake Davis, has suffered during the recent drought. Regardless, the issues beg the question of whether changes are needed in managing some Sierra lake fisheries, if only to protect fragile local Sierra community economies sustained in large part by recreation.

Like many other popular Sierra lakes, Davis is managed by CDFW as a Hatchery Supported Trout Water. It is stocked and managed as a Put-and-Grow and Put-and-Take water. Such waters are capable of supporting trout growth and carry-over survival, but have limited capacity for natural reproduction. For Put-and-Grow fisheries, hatchery-produced trout 3-6 inches in length are stocked periodically to augment the trout population. Put-and-Take waters are stocked with catchable-sized hatchery trout in support of intensive fisheries to support waters near campgrounds, roadsides or other high access areas where angling demand is high, and where anglers often want to keep some fish. California is blessed with many such public waters sustained by CDFW and public utilities’ stocking.

At Lake Davis, many locals, visitors, and guides have noted a gradual decline in catch rates of trout, but an increasing average size of trout over the past four to five years. Catch rates including my own have gone from 20 to 10 per day to 5 to or even 1 or 2 per day. Average size has increased several inches to 20-22 inches, with larger fish common. Rather than faster growth, it appears more fish are reaching their terminal age of 4 to 5 years. A lack of smaller size trout in catches may indicate reduced stocking or poor survival of the 3-12 inch hatchery fish.

Harvest rates of 5 per day are allowed, with 10 in possession. The season is openyear round, and ice fishing is popular. Winter-spring harvest of adult trout near the mouths of spawning creeks is allowed, whereas some other Sierra lakes open in April or May to protect spawning fish. Other quality Sierra lake fisheries have reduced harvest rates of 2 fish per day. Regardless, the lake attracts many diverse fishing interests who have been attracted by high catch rates and the large size of trout over the years.

Other than harvest and stocking rates, what else has changed the lake in recent years? Certainly four years of drought has brought about the gradual drop in lake depth and surface area, with some recovery this winter and spring. Largemouth bass and shiners have returned in small numbers, but thankfully there have been no reports of pike. The trout’s food supply seems recovered and abundant for the most part. The lake’s bed of invasive aquatic Eurasian milfoil plants remains abundant. The lake’s twin sister Davis Lake in southern Oregon with restrictive fly-fishing-only regulations and no trout harvest allowed has also had its trout fishery decline in recent drought years.2

Other than stocking more fish or restricting harvest, what else could be done to improve the lake’s fishery? One option I would recommend is raising catchable and trophy sized trout in pens using local funding. This approach was recently begun at Englebright Reservoir on the Yuba River.3 It is gaining favor throughout the West for enhancing popular high-intensity trout lake fisheries where there is limited natural production and limited conflict with wild-trout populations. On Davis Lake, Honker Cove or the Dam Cove would be good locations for such an endeavor. I would also recommend stocking more sterile triploid trout, as they may grow faster and survive better to older ages by not having the urge to undergo the rigors of spawning.

For further reading on the Lake Davis trout fishery, Sierra lake fishery management, and related issues see the following:

Hatcheries Release Salmon Smolts into Low Flows and Warm Water – April and early May, 2016

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April 13. CBS San Francisco reports:

The federal government is funding the release of millions of Baby Chinook salmon into Battle Creek at the Coleman Federal Hatchery outside Red Bluff. Brett Galyean, deputy project leader at Coleman Federal Hatchery, said, “It’s a big day. It’s the first time in two years that we were able to release all the fish on station…. Because of the drought the last two years, the environmental conditions in the Sacramento River — warm water, low flow — caused us to truck fish.”… However, of the 12 million fish released, only one percent are expected to return to Battle Creek in three years to spawn.

April 29. Recent fishing report states:

This spring’s striper fishing on the Sacramento River has been going very well with daily limits of large Sacramento River striped bass. Most of the action has been from Colusa downriver through Verona as the Sacramento River is very low due to minimal releases from Keswick Dam and high volumes of irrigation pumping from the lower Sacramento River. Stripers mostly 18 to 24 inches are coming in daily with some very large female stripers 15 to 25 pounds coming in as well. Drifting live jumbo minnows has been working best in the daytime while black worms or white swim baits are working at night. The Coleman National Fish Hatchery has released the remaining 6 million fall-run juvenile salmon smolt into the Sacramento River. With low flows coupled with the massive irrigation pumping, the lower Sacramento River from Butte City downriver through Verona is extremely low, leaving exposed sand and gravel bars across the river. This is setting the stage for an incredible striper fishing as the smolts arrive in the lower Sacramento River. Striper fishing should be incredible as the stripers feed day and night on the hatchery salmon smolt just like last month when the first round of hatchery Sacramento River salmon smolt were released. Sacramento fishing.com fishing guide Dave Jacobs has witnessed countless striper boils as the spawning stripers have fed around the clock on the salmon smolts from Butte City downriver through Verona.

May 1. Yet another fishing report notes:

The striper action has been incredible for the past several weeks. While many of the stripers are post spawn they are hanging out and destroying recent salmon plants coming out of the hatcheries…. Before the past weekend, he found great action on the Feather River, but heavy boat traffic over the weekend slowed down the Feather since an armada showed up. Salmon smolts were released in the Feather this past week, and the combination of low flows and clear water made for a killing zone for the smolts…. The bite lasted until most of the baby salmon made it to the Sacramento River, and I was able to follow them down the Sacramento a couple of miles until the fishing got tough…. The California Department Fish and Wildlife hatchery on the Feather river is planning on releasing their final stock of 1 million into the Feather river instead of trucking them around the river and Delta pumps to the Suisun Bay. The Federal hatchery on Battle creek released 4 plus million salmon fry this past week and will dumping an additional 1.9 million fall run fish into Battle Creek this coming Friday. The is [sic] opposed to these releases due to the current lower flows and clear water. With high numbers of spawning stripers and low / clear flows most of these fish will never make it as far as Sacramento. Past studies have shown that 94% of hatchery salmon released on the upper Sac never make it to San Pablo bay in these conditions.

May 2. SacBee Fishing continues the theme:

SACRAMENTO RIVER, Red Bluff to Colusa – Salmon smolts have been released from Coleman National Fish Hatchery, and are expected to fuel a hot striper bite from Butte City to Verona. The river is dropping, which caused many of the stripers to drop downstream last week. Anglers now expect stripers to move upriver to feed on the salmon smolts.

Sacramento River Conditions

The Sacramento River water quality Basin Plan objective requires no water temperature greater than 56°F upstream of Hamilton City and no temperature greater than 68°F upstream of Sacramento. Water temperature Red Bluff (upstream of Hamilton City) has already reached a daily average of 62°F, well above the required limit (and this with Shasta full of cold water). Water temperatures below Hamilton City have reached 69°F (at Wilkins Slough). Downstream-migrating smolts are stressed and more vulnerable to predation as water temperatures approach 60°F, yet managers continue to release hatchery smolts from the Battle Creek and Feather River hatcheries. Adult winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, now migrating upstream in the Sacramento River, are also being stressed by water temperatures greater than 65°F. The 60-65°F range is optimal for striped bass feeding and metabolism. ARE THE HATCHERY SMOLTS SIMPLY CHUM FOR STRIPERS???

Sac at Red Bluff

San Joaquin Salmon Restoration – Update

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On March 8, I posted some questions about the San Joaquin salmon restoration program and its upcoming release of hatchery smolts. On March 18, CDFW released 105,000 hatchery smolts into the San Joaquin River near Merced.1

The release coincided with the modest peak in annual San Joaquin River flow (Figure 1). Delta outflow peaked near 70,000 cfs at that time. Water temperatures were also below the stressful level of 68°F (20°C) (Figure 2). Smolt releases in the past two years did not have such good conditions, and few survived to reach the Delta. In contrast, in the week following this year’s release nearly 500 of these marked Spring-Run smolts have shown up in fish salvage at the South Delta export facilities , a clear indication that many survived to the Delta. The salvage numbers also indicate the released smolts had to take a tough route through the Delta with no assurance that they were successful in reaching the Bay even under the high wet year Delta outflows. It remains to be seen how well these smolt releases from the past three years fare in terms of survival to the Bay (Chipps Island Trawl Survey) and Ocean (coastal fisheries returns). I stand by my recommendation of barging the smolts to the Golden Gate, which would assure 99% survival to the Ocean.

Figure 1. Hourly flow in the San Joaquin River near Vernalis from March 5 to April 4, 2016.

Figure 1. Hourly flow in the San Joaquin River near Vernalis from March 5 to April 4, 2016.

Figure 2. Water temperature (Deg F) in the San Joaquin River below Merced from March 5 to April 4, 2016.

Figure 2. Water temperature (Deg F) in the San Joaquin River below Merced from March 5 to April 4, 2016.