BIOECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF COLUMBIA RIVER HATCHERY 



FALL CHINOOK SALMON, 1961 THROUGH 1964 BROODS, 



TO THE PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES 



Roy J. Wahle and Robert R. Vreeland> 



ABSTRACT 



This experiment was designed to estimate the contribution to sport and commercial fisheries of the 

 1961 through 1964 broods of fall chinook salmon, Oncor/jvnc/zi/s^s/iau'.y^sc/ja, from 13 rearing facilities 

 on the Columbia River. These facilities reared 909c of the Columbia River hatchery fall chinook salmon 

 during the four brood years. Marks common to all facilities were applied to 21.3 million of the 213 

 million 1961-64 brood fish released. Special marks were applied to 9.6 million fish at 11 of the study 

 hatcheries. Sampling for the marks took place from 1963 through 1969. 



During the 7 yr of sampling, 65,620 chinook salmon with common and 22,090 fish with special marks 

 were estimated to have been caught in marine commercial and sport fisheries from Pelican, Alaska, to 

 Avila Beach, Calif., and Columbia River fisheries. The potential contribution for the four broods from 

 the 13 study facilities, after adjustment for the effects of marking, was 1,433,300 fish. The value of the 

 contribution was estimated at $12,027,000. Costs applicable to rearing were $2,859,700, yielding an 

 average benefit to cost ratio of 4.2 to 1. Benefit to cost ratios at the 11 special mark hatcheries ranged 

 from 0.3 to 1 to 17.1 to 1. 



The Columbia River Development Program (sub- 

 sequently referred to as "Program"), initiated in 

 1949, was created to counteract the severe loss of 

 salmon, Oncorhynchus spp., and steelhead trout, 

 Salmo gairdneri, resulting from the expansion of 

 water-use projects in the Columbia River system. 

 The Program is a cooperative effort of fish man- 

 agement agencies of the States of Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, and Idaho and the Federal Government 

 and is administered by the Columbia Fisheries 

 Program Office, National Marine Fisheries Ser- 

 vice, NOAA, Portland, Oreg. The Program's role 

 has included two major functions: 1 ) the protection 

 and improvement of stream environment which 

 has included improvement of natural habitat, 

 such as clearing obstructions from nearly 2,000 mi 

 of tributary streams, building 87 fishways past 

 natural barriers, and installation of 570 screens in 

 diversion ditches and canals; and 2 ) the production 

 offish in hatcheries which has been accomplished 

 by the construction or modernization of 21 salmon 

 and steelhead hatcheries on the lower Columbia 

 River and tributaries. A supplementary function 

 of the Program is funding operational improve- 

 ment studies to complement the hatchery system. 



Major achievements have been: 1) improved 

 marking techniques through development of the 

 implanted coded wire fish tag (Bergman et al. 

 1968); 2) increased natural production through 

 rehabilitation of chinook salmon runs in the 

 Clearwater River system in Idaho and the Wil- 

 lamette River system in Oregon; 3) determination 

 of the physiological factors controlling 

 downstream salmonid smolt migration through 

 understanding the development of osmotic and 

 ionic regulation in coho salmon (Conte et al. 1966), 

 chinook salmon (Wagner et al. 1969), and 

 steelhead trout (Conte and Wagner 1965), thus 

 improving hatchery release timing; 4) reduced 

 natural competition and predation through the 

 development of Squaxin,^ a selective toxin to 

 squawfish (MacPhee and Ruelle 1969); and 5) im- 

 proved fish diets through development of the Ore- 

 gon Moist Pellet (Hublou 1963). 



There are two major reasons for concentrating 

 on hatchery produced salmon and steelhead trout: 

 their life histories allow successful hatchery prop- 

 agation and these species are historically and 

 economically important to the United States. Over 

 the past three decades Pacific salmon have ranked 

 first or second in landed value of commercial 



'Environmental and Technical Services Division, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 811 NE Oregon Street, P.O. 

 Box 4332, Portland, OR 97208. 



Manuscript accepted April 1977. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 76, NO. 1. 1978. 



^References to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



179 



