State of California
The Resources Agency
DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
ANNUAL REPORT
FEATHER RIVER HATCHERY
20008/09
by
Anna Kastner
North Central Region
Wildlife and Inland Fisheries Division
Administrative Report No.
ANNUAL REPORT
FEATHER RIVER HATCHERY
By
Anna Kastner
North Central Sierra Region
ABSTRACT
This report describes the operations of Feather River Hatchery (FRH) from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009. Tables and Appendices present daily record of water temperatures, daily numbers of salmon and steelhead entering the hatchery, and total number of salmonids reared and released.
We trapped 6,125 total adults Chinook salmon, of these 6,125 were 3 and 4 year old adults and 293 were grilse. There were 292 adults and 18 half pounders steelhead trapped. Fish planted and transferred 1Chinook salmon BY 08 and 401,098 BY 08 steelhead trout.
Once more, we obtain a 4d permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. This allowed Feather River Hatchery to keep the ladder open to see the timing of spring run Chinook salmon and steelhead. A barrier was place at the bottom of the ladder June 30, 2008; 1,469 fish were (green) floy tagged and release to the Feather River by this date. Fish were removed from the ladder and where allowed to come back on July 3rd, 2008. The ladder remained open from July 3rd to July 15th. 446 fish were (red) floy tagged and released from July 5, 2008 to July 21, 2008; at which time the ladder was dewatered. The Total amount of fish tagged for this period was 1915, 45% (861) fish were adipose clipped with 6 mortalities.
1/ Inland Fisheries Administrative Report No
-
INTRODUCTION
This report describes activities at the Feather River Hatchery and the Thermalito Fish Facility during the 40Th year of operation beginning July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. The hatchery is located near the upper Thermalito Bridge in Oroville, Butte County. It was constructed by the Department of Water Resource as part of the California Water Project to compensate for the loss of spawning area above the Oroville Dam. It is operated by the Department of Fish and Game with funds provided by the Department of Water Resources. The Thermalito Fish Facility is located along Highway 99, one mile south of Oro-Dam Boulevard West. Operating expenses are shared by the Department of Fish and Game (5/6) and the Department of Water Resources (1/6).
Personnel opened the ladder on September 15, 2008 to begin the trapping of Chinook salmon. The ladder remained in operation through June 30th, 2009. The water to the ladder was turn off on July ??, 2009. Due to low number of fish, only 2,569 adult salmon carcasses accumulated from spawning operations were disposed of through one non profit organization: Enterprise Rancheria. A total of 1,223 Salmon weighing approximately 30,575 lbs where taken by American Canadian Fisheries, which provided frozen fish filets to food link. Due to cultural significance, the Enterprise Rancheria will deliver whole fish to the local Native Americans. These programs will continue from now until further notice. Carcasses deemed unfit for human consumption (losses from holding tanks) were disposed of through a local rendering facility.
Eggs were provided to 15 schools throughout Butte, Yolo, Colusa, and Sutter counties for the Classroom Aquarium Education Program (CAEP). 500 fall run Chinook salmon eggs and 0 steelhead eggs provided for this program. The resulting fry were released into the Feather River except for the fish given to Casa Grande High School (16,140 fish); these fish were release in the San Francisco Bay (Tiburon Net Pens).
PRODUCTION SUMMARY
Personnel from Feather River Hatchery trapped 6,418 Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha, and 292 steelhead adults, O. Mykiss during the 2008-09 seasons (Table 1).
Due to low number of spring run fish tagged in the spring, coded wired tagged fish that were not hall print tagged were isolated to one tank. The purpose for this was to increase the number of spring run eggs. This was done by mating one male with one female and then reading the tag in order to determine their race. A total of 908 fish were held, 442 males, 466 females and 75 grilse.
For the last few years we have been reducing the numbers of eggs taken to meet our Goals and Constraints. This year we did not reduce any eggs due to low number of fish. The detail for each run will be given in the “Maintenance Program” section of this report. For the purpose of this summary, the number of green eggs kept will be identified.
-3
Approximately 12,508,118 salmon and 409.054 steelhead green eggs were kept. Chinook salmon grown at the facility which includes study fish and fish used for other programs totaled 10,403,744 Chinook Brood Year 08 and 401,098 steelhead yearlings BY 07.
MARKING PROGRAMS
Big Eagle and Associates, a private fish tagging and marking contractor, coded wire tagged (cwt) and marked (removed adipose fin) , 2,036,037 spring run Chinook BY 08 and 499,476 Mix(known cwt fall x spring mix fish) BY 08Chinook Salmon. They also marked (removed adipose fin) 274,754 steelhead trout BY 08 and 268,568 Coho-WA-08 were coded wired tagged. This year thermal marking of Otoliths on all fish was accomplished by manipulating water temperature during incubation.
This is the third year of the fractional marking program ran by the Pacific Management Council (PMC). They were contracted by the Department of Fish and Game to mark 25% or our production fall run Chinook fish, fall run fish were coded wired tagged. A total of 5,685,474 fall run Chinook salmon BY 08 were counted and a total of 1,971,730 fall run Chinook salmon were coded wired tagged.
CHINOOK SALMON MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
History of the 2008/2009
2008 BY Spring Run
The fish ladder was opened on September 15, 2008 to allow the spring run Chinook salmon to enter the hatchery. During May and June of 2009, spring run Chinook were tagged for a total of 1,062 fish (See Appendix B). The spring run Chinook were sorted and sexed from September 16 to October 08, 2008 (Appendix Table 1). We received a season total of 1,058 spring run Chinook of which 501 were females and 557 were males and 7 grilse. In addition to the Hall print tag fish we held coded wired fish that were not Hall print tagged in the hopes to increase the amount of spring run eggs. From this group we had 389 fish, 204 males and 185 females. Between September 25, 2008 and October 8, 2008, 381 males and 390 females were spawned form Hall print tags; from the coded wired tagged fish, 46 males and 46 females were spawned. The producing a total for all fish was 2,301,107 green eggs. From these green eggs, 2,095,285 eyed eggs survived (91.1% survival rate). A total of 2,024012 fingerlings were put in our pond for a survival rate of 88%.
Between April 06, 2008 to April 14, 2008, 2,024,012 were planted between Boyd’s pump and the San Pablo Bay. All these fish were coded wire tagged; 1,016,835 went to Boyd’s pump and 1,007,177 went to San Pablo Bay at Crockett and Mere Island. Our total spring run production was planted out and we had zero balance as of June 30, 2008. (Table 6)
-4-
2008 BY Fall Run Chinook
The first fall run Chinook salmon adults counted were on September 16, 2008. We received a season total of 4,159 fall run fish of which 1,997 were females, 2,162 males and 211 grilse. This year we kept coded wired tagged fish in a separate tank with the hopes of increasing spring run egg numbers. The result of keeping these coded wired tagged fish was the increase the fall numbers by 544 fish, 302 males and 242 females. From September 27, 2008 to November 05, 2008 we spawned 1,786 females, 1,424 males and 145 grilse (106 males and 106 females came from the coded wired tagged group.
The total egg take was 9,403,201 eggs. This year all eggs were kept. The total number of eyed eggs was 8,577,867. There was a 91.22% survival from the green stage to the eye stage. 500 eggs were given to the CAEP program. Fry production totaled 10,600,051 for an average eyed egg to fry survival of 99%. A total of 7,658,810 fall run production fish were planted by the end of the fiscal year and as of June 30, 2008, a zero balance was left.
RECOVERY OF MARKED CHINOOK SALMON
All Chinook salmon entering the hatchery were examined for marks; 527 spring run Chinook (254 males, 273 females) and 243 fall run Chinook, (111 males, 132 females). For the first two weeks after the ladder was opened (September 15 – 27), all Coded Wired Tagged fish were kept in a separate tank; 901 fish were counted (481 males and 420 females. A total of 1,671 fish trapped were marked with an adipose fin clip. The heads of these fish were kept to extract the coded wire tags. (Appendix, Table 2). The Coded wired tagged fish were read by
the Healdsburg laboratory and an additional report was created to account for the fall and spring run fish associated with these fish (Appendix H).
CHINOOK SALMON PLANTING
We planted an estimated 10,376,025 Chinook fingerlings and smolts BY 08 (Table 5). This included the mix coded wired tagged fish.
INLAND CHINOOK SALMON PLANTING
Due to schedule maintenance to the main water line that provides water to the facility, the hatchery will not be able to raise any fish at the facility. In order to maintain the steelhead program at the Thermalito Annex, the Coho BY 07 salmon had to be planted early. 314,630 Coho eggs BY 08 were received January 6, 2009.
-5-
STEELHEAD MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
History 2007-08 production
Steelhead O. mykiss were not counted until December 2, 2008. A total of 294 fish were trapped from December 2, 2006 through March 3, 2009. Of the total run, 164 were males, 130 were females and 18 were less than 16 inches. From now on we will use the 16 inch limit to separate adults from half-pounders
We successfully spawned 151 males and 115 females (Table 3) representing the spectrum of the run, and took a total of 409,054 green eggs for an average of 3,557 eggs per female. There was 1 fish that had an adipose fin (1 Male). 0 eggs were transferred to Mokelumne River Hatchery. 303,671 fish were transfer to ponds. In the Month of June, Big Eagles and Associate adipose clipped 274,754 fish.
As of June 30, 2009 we had an estimated ???BY-09 on hand.
Steelhead Planting Summary, 2007-08
An estimated 401,098 BY-08 fish were planted during the 2008-09 season (Table 4). Of these, 1,098 were planted to meet Delta Pump Fish Protection Agreement (4 Pumps) mitigation goals. 1,109 were released at Bedrock Park and 401,098 were planted at Boyd’s pump in the Feather River. All steelhead were adipose fin clipped in June.
-6-
TABLE 1. Feather River Hatchery Production Summary, 2008-09
Species Adults Females Eggs Fish Planted Estimated On
Brood Trapped or Spawned Taken Fingerlings Adv. Fingerlings Hand
Year Received
Fall Run
2008 BY 4,159 adults 1,680 8,912,927 10,160,051 -0-
211 grilse
542 Adults* 106
Spring Run 1,058 adults 390 2,301,107 2, 686,333 -0-
2008 BY 7 grilse
389 Adults* 46
CWT Mix* 340 Adults 170 803,810 693,203
2008 BY
Steelhead -0- -0- -0- -0- 401,098 -0-
BY 2008
Steelhead 294 adults 115 409,054 -0- -0- 274,754
200 BY 18 ½ pounders
Coho-WA-08 314,680 -0- -0- -0- -0-
* CWT-coded wired tagged fish that were kept separate to increase spring run egg take. Fish were kept and 100% tagged. Spring x Spring, Fall x Fall crosses were added to the prospective runs. The mix fish were kept for enhancement.
-7-
APPENDIX TABLE 1. Weekly Adult Salmon and Steelhead Trapping Data
For Feather River Hatchery -2004-2005
Chinook Salmon Chinook Salmon Chinook Salmon
Fall Run Spring Run Steelhead Trout Mix Run
Week Adults Grilse Adults Grilse Males Females Male Female
Sept. 14-20 24 10
Sept. 21-27 200 1 222 68
Sept. 28-Oct.4 714 1 527 6 214
Oct. 5-11 1,136 40 90 48
Oct. 12-18 609 27
Oct. 19-25 327 40
Oct. 26-Nov.1 109 20
Nov. 2– 8 63 16
Nov. 9-15
Nov. 23-29 shorts
Nov. 30-Dec.6 48 37 4 4
Dec. 7 5 4 1 1
Dec. 14 1 6 4 0
Dec. 21 3
Dec. 28 15 5 3
Jan. 04 20 16
Jan. 11 18 21
Jan. 18 11 14 1 1
Jan 25 20 14
Feb. 01 7 3
Feb. 08 4 6
Feb. 15 4 3
Feb. 22 2
March 1 4 1
-8-
TABLE 3. Steelhead Spawning Data,
Feather River Hatchery
Date Fish Spawned
Male Female
Dec. 16, 2008 13 07
Dec. 23, 2008 10 08
Dec. 30, 2008 08 07
Jan. 05, 2009 19 15
Jan. 13, 2009 20 16
Jan. 22, 2009 24 19
Jan. 27, 2009 15 11
Feb. 03, 2009 15 12
Feb. 20, 2009 15 12
Feb. 17, 2009 05 04
Feb. 25, 2009 04 03