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SOCKEYE FRESHWATER 

 PRODUCTION 



Given Ihc liny anadromous stock of remnant sockeye 

 salmon present in Redfish I^e. the highest immediate 

 priority must be to prevent extinction and save the gene 

 pool. A captive broodstock program for that purpose was 

 initiated by the National Marine Fisheries Service and Idaho 

 Department of Fish and Game prior to the creation of the 

 Snake River Salmon Recovery Team. The program is 

 designed to rear progeny from returning adults to maturity, 

 and thereby use protection in the hatchery to avoid the 

 environmental hazards of natural rearing. If successful, the 

 higher survival rate of hatchery-reared fish should produce 

 large numbers of next-generation juveniles for outplanting 

 to "jump-start" natural propagation processes. Redfish Lake 

 outmigrani smolts which may have anadromous ancestry are 

 included in that captive broodstock program, and so are the 

 offspring of the newly discovered Redfish Lake residual 

 sockeye stock. 



The Recovery Team endorses the sockeye captive 

 broodstock program as an emergency measure, and has 

 devoted considerable attention to extending it and specifying 

 its purpose and methodology. In addition, the Team feels 

 that the present program should be expanded to other 

 hatcheries in order to "spread the risk" of possible 

 detrimental effects. The Team recognizes the experimental 

 nature of the program, and understands that significant 

 adverse genetic (and other) effects can result from hatchery 

 rearing over a full generation. However, these risks are 

 justifiable in view of the alternative, which is almost certain 

 extinction of the remnant anadromous stock. The Team is 

 concerned about survival rates of fish being reared and the 

 available facilities for the broodstocks program. 



The Team emphasizes that the ultimate goal must be to 

 restore naturally propagating anadromous sockeye 

 populations to lakes of the Stanley Basin and, where 

 appropriate, to other lakes in the Snake River drainage. The 

 captive broodstock program can only provide initial 

 stocking for those lakes. A key long-term recovery goal is 

 to terminate the captive broodstock program. Only natural 

 production can be counted for delisting purposes, and only 

 long-term self-sustaining natural production will satisfy the 

 goals of any recovery plan. 



This long-term recovery goal will take several decades to 

 accomplish and evaluate. The earliest significant releases of 

 progeny from the captive broodstock program will be 1994- 

 1995. and survivors from those releases will return to spawn 

 one to three years later. Their offspring will be the first 



Water supply and raceway at a hatchery. (NMFS Photo) 



from that lineage to spawn in the wild. Their lake rearing, 

 seaward migration, and return to the spawning grounds will 

 require the subsequent three to five years. Peak production 

 from the captive broodstock program will lag some years 

 beyond the initial production. It will be well into the next 

 century before the natural productivity derived from captive 

 broodstocks can even begin to be evaluated. 



Two subcommittees should be formed to assist the Salmon 

 Oversight Committee with the sockeye captive broodstock 

 program. A Genetics Protocol Workgroup should be formed 

 to assist the Stanley Basin Sockeye Technical Oversight 

 Committee in developing the necessary protocols for 

 selective breeding and appropriate broodstock record- 

 keeping. A Fish Culture/Fish Health Working Group should 

 also be created. This working group will also assist the 

 Stanley Basin Sockeye Technical Oversight Committee; it 

 will help to develop standard operating procedures and 

 protocols for fish rearing and disease control. 



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