UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Once abundant, the coho salmon population in the Russian River system north of San Francisco has declined to the point where the species has been listed as endangered by both the State and Federal governments. To reverse this decline intensive efforts to assess and restore habitat and monitor fish populations have been undertaken in the Russian River for over a decade. Examples of these include the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) Fishery Restoration Program, the Russian River Tributary Restoration and Landowner Outreach Program of the University of California (UC), projects undertaken by California Trout and Trout Unlimited, and projects completed by the Gold Ridge, Mendocino, and Sotoyome Resource Conservation Districts. These combined efforts have improved miles of stream that provide excellent coho habitat. Despite these restoration efforts the population continued in decline. The collapse of coho salmon prompted the CDFG in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to initiate the Russian River Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program (RRCSCBP) to restore coho populations. This multi-year program involves the capture of wild juveniles, which are reared in captivity and used as broodstock for production of fingerlings that are released in tributary streams. The goal is to reestablish self-sustaining runs of coho salmon in the Russian River. Program Partners captured the first broodstock as wild juveniles in 2001 and released their offspring as juveniles into stocking streams in October of 2004. Successive releases were conducted each year in the spring and/or fall of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Currently, a 7th brood year release is being planned for 2010. It is hoped that releases will be continued until the program has achieved its goal. A partner in this program since its inception, scientists with the UC have designed and implemented a monitoring program to develop a scientific information base that is essential to evaluate the recovery program’s success and answer the following questions: 1. Are stocked fish successfully rearing and outmigrating as smolts? 2. What are summer and winter mortality rates? 3. What stocking strategies are most successful? a. Release in spring as fingerlings or smolts b. Release in fall as advanced fingerlings c. Release in winter as smolts 4. What are the similarities and differences in habitat conditions between program streams? 5. How do environmental factors correlate with differences in survival and condition of released coho? 6. How many spawners and redds are in the program streams? 7. What is the number of returning adults? 8. Are returning adults successfully spawning? 9. Are there differences in survival and growth between Russian x Russian and Russian x Olema cross-types? This UC monitoring program, in partnership with CDFG, NMFS, and USACE, is answering these questions through survival and abundance monitoring from one life history stage to the next in order to detect population bottlenecks that may be related to stream habitat, predator and/or prey abundance, ocean conditions or other factors.

Clarification of Codes