State of California s90

State of California The Resources Agency DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME

ANNUAL REPORT FEATHER RIVER HATCHERY 2004/05

Anna Kastner Sacramento Valley - Central Sierra Region

Wildlife and Inland Fisheries Division Administrative Report No. ANNUAL REPORT FEATHER RIVER HATCHERY By

Anna Kastner Sacramento Valley - Central Sierra Region

ABSTRACT

This report describes the operations of Feather River Hatchery from July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005. 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 total 25,506 adults Chinook salmon, of these were 3 and 4 year old adults and 6,107 were grilse. There were 2,072 adults and 14 “shorts” Steelhead trapped. Fish planted and transferred 10,219,387 Chinook salmon BY 05 and 601,529 BY 04 steelhead trout.

This year we obtain a 4d permit; this allowed us to keep the ladder open to see the timing of spring run Chinook salmon and Steelhead. The ladder finally closed June 17, 2004; at this time we tagged 3654 fish that were released into the river. The ladder stayed open until June 30, 2005 at this time we tagged and released 5,505 adult salmon. 690 adults were return with no tags and had 51 handling mortalities.

1/ Inland Fisheries Administrative Report No. -2-

INTRODUCTION

This report describes activities at the Feather River Hatchery and it=s Annex during it=s 37th year of operation beginning July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. 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 13, 2004 to begin the trapping of Chinook salmon. Last year we open the ladder two weeks earlier than normal, from now on the ladder will open mid September. The ladder remained in operation through June 30, 2005. Adult Salmon Carcasses accumulated from spawning operations were disposed of through two non profit organizations, Five-CO Gleaners, Inc., Gridley, Paradise and Oroville Gleaners, Community Action Agency and the Enterprise Rancheria., for distribution. A total of 22,220 Salmon weighing approximately 350,080 lbs. This year Canadian Fisheries Inc. took the carcasses that went to the Gleaners and Community Action Agency and brought back frozen fish filets, thus the weight per fish decrease to a third. Due to cultural significance, the Enterprise Rancheria will delivered 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 twenty schools through-out Butte, Yolo, Colusa, and Sutter counties and some to Nimbus hatchery for the “Incubator in the Classroom@ program. There were 7,479 Fall run Chinook salmon eggs and 2500 steelhead eggs provided for this program. The resulting fry were released into the Feather River.

PRODUCTION SUMMARY

Personnel from Feather River Hatchery trapped 25,506 Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha, and 2,072 steelhead adults, O. mykiss during the 2004-05 seasons (Table 1). For the last few years we have been reducing the numbers of eggs taken to meet our Goals and Constrains. In order to provide better records on the transaction at the hatchery, several numbers need to be noted: total numbers of eggs taken; this is all the eggs before the reduction is made. Number of green eggs kept and number of eyed eggs. The detail for each run will be given in the “Maintenance Program” section of this report. For the purpose to this summary, the number of green eggs kept will be given. To clarify, the only eggs that are not reduced are the spring run.

-3- Approximately 15,128,715 salmon and 1,042,824 steelhead green eggs were kept. Chinook salmon Planted and transferred 12,856,755 Chinook Brood Year 03; 212,000 Chinook, Brood Year 03, and 500,772 Steelhead yearlings and 9,222 Chinook BY 03 for GCID.

MARKING PROGRAMS

Big Eagle and Associates, a private fish tagging and marking contractor, coded wire tagged and marked (removed adipose fin) a total of 1,600,820 fall run Chinook salmon BY 04, 1,810,373 spring run Chinook BY 04. They also marked (removed adipose fin) 380,218 steelhead BY 04. . Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District marked 9,222 Chinook salmon BY 03; 13,540Chinook Salmon BY 04 with different spay dye markers. This year, a limited number of fish were Otoliths marked (Appendix B for details)

CHINOOK SALMON MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

History of the 2004

2004 BY Spring Run

The fish ladder was opened on September 13, 2004 to allow the spring run Chinook salmon to enter the hatchery. The ladder was opened two weeks later than normal. This is due to the fish we tagged earlier this spring; we tagged 3,654 fish (See Appendix A). The spring run were sorted and sexed from September14 to October 7, 2004 (Appendix Table 1). This year we had two groups of spring run fish, the once that were tagged earlier in the spring are being identify as “early” springs and were spawned together. The ones that came in between September 14 through September 16, 2004 that were not tagged were designated as “late” springs. The total number of “early” fish for the season was 811, 420 were males and 391 female. A total of 749 “early” spring fish were spawned, 389 males and 360 females yielding a total of 2,202,615 green eggs. A total of 2,198, 1,349 males and 849 females, “late” spring fish were spawned, yielding 4,915,768 green eggs. The fecundity for the “early” spring fish was 5,456 eggs/female and 5,750 eggs/female for the “late” spring fish.

An estimated 1,222,201 “early” spring and 2,497,832 “late” spring fingerlings were transferred to the ponds for an average egg to fingerling survival rate of 88 %.

Between January 1, 2004 and February, 2004, we planted 2,518,615 “late” spring run smolts; 470,065 were coded wired tagged of these, 236,635 went to Live Oak and 233,635 went to Verona. All the “early” spring fish were tagged; 636,434 fish were planted in Live Oak in the Feather River; 702,281 fish were planted in the San Pablo Bay at Crockett of these fish 330,876 were put in the net pen. Survival from swim-up(fry) to smolt release for the “late” spring was 99%. The survival from swim up to smolts was skewed by having more fish planted than fry put in the ponds. Our total spring run production was planted out and we had -0- balance as of June 30, 2005. (Table 6)

2004 BY Fall Run

The first fall run Chinook salmon adults counted were on September 21, 2004. We received a season total of 21,304 fall run fish of which 7,185 were females, 8,585 males and 5,535 jacks. Between September 21, 2004 and November 29, 2004, we spawned 6,665 females, 7,414 males and 200 jacks. -4- The total egg take was 30,765,475 of these, 15,112,715 green eggs were kept. A reduction of 50% was taken from the first 4 lots, the rest of the lots were reduced as eggs were taken. The total number of eyed eggs kept was 9,124,785. It is hard to have a percentage of survivability form green to eye due to reductions make on the first four lots. 7,479 eggs were given to the Salmon in the Classroom program. Fry production totaled 9,005,086 for an average eyed egg to fry survival of 98.6%. 8,997,836 fall run production fish were planted by the end of the fiscal year and as of June 30, 2005, we had a balance of 221,222 fall run BY 03.

RECOVERY OF MARKED CHINOOK SALMON

All Chinook salmon entering the hatchery were examined for marks; 653 spring fish (518 males, 135 females) and 2,187 fall fish (1,491 males, 696 females) for a total of 2,846 fish received were marked with an adipose fin clip. The heads of these fish were kept to extract the coded wire tag. (Appendix, Table 2).

CHINOOK SALMON PLANTING

We planted an estimated 12,746,925 Chinook fingerlings and smolts BY 04 and 192,000BY 03 (Table 5). Of these 7,050,674 were released through the net pen release program operated by The Fishery Foundation of California. 29,222 Chinook BY 03 were tagged for Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District.

INLAND CHINOOK SALMON PLANTING

Due to Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD) Aqua seed Coho-WA were not imported to Feather River Hatchery

STEELHEAD MAINTENANCE PROGRAM, History of the 2004-05 production

Steelhead were not counted until November 29, 2004. A total of 2,072 fish were trapped from November 29, 2004 through April 18, 2005. Of the total run 1,357 were males, 715 were females and 14 were less than 16inches. From now on we will use the 16 inch limit to separate adults from the “shorts”. -5-

We successfully spawned 515 males and 372 females (Table 3) representing the spectrum of the run, and took a total of 1,549,735 green eggs for an average of 4,166 eggs per female. There were no fish that had an adipose fin. 266,816 eyed eggs were transferred to Mokelumne River Hatchery and 2,000 to UC Davis.. There were 715,400 eyed left for production. We transferred an estimated 601,529 fish to the ponds for an overall average survival of 84 %. Big Eagle and Associates adipose clipped 380,218 fish. As of June 30, 2005 we had an estimated 380,218 BY-05 on hand. Note: this year we experience high incidents of cold water disease in our young fry and had high mortalities.

Steelhead Planting Summary, 2003-04

An estimated 500,772 BY-04 fish were planted during the 2004-05 season (Table 4). Of these, 80,000 were planted to meet Delta Pump Fish Protection Agreement (4 Pumps) mitigation goals, 1,229 were released at Bedrock Park and the remaining 420,772 were planted at the Gridley and Live Oak Boat Ramps, Butte County in the Feather River. All steelhead were adipose fin clipped in July..

TABLE 1. Feather River Hatchery Production Summary, 2004-05

Species Adults Females Eggs Fish Planted Estimated On Brood Trapped or Spawned Taken Fingerlings Adv. Fingerlings Hand Year Received

Fall Run -0- -0- -0- -0- 221,222 -0- 2003 BY

Fall Run 2004 BY 15,769 adults 6,671 15,128,715* 8,889,559 -0- 5,535 grilse

Spring Run 811 adults 389 2,202,615 1,338,715 -0-

2003 BY 0 grilse “Early” “Late” 2,100 adult 849 4,227,311 2,518,611 -0-

Steelhead -0- -0- -0- -0- 500,772 -0- BY 2003

Steelhead 2,072 adults 372 1,549,735 -0- -0- 601,529 2004 BY 14 shorts 268,618**

* Number of eggs kept- the total number of eggs taken was 30,765,475 ** Eggs transferred to Mokelumne River Hatchery (266,816 eggs) and to UC Davis (2,000 eggs)

APPENDIX TABLE 1. Weekly Adult Salmon and Steelhead Trapping Data For Feather River Hatchery -2004-2005

Chinook Salmon Chinook Salmon

Fall Run Spring Run Steelhead Trout Week Adults

Grilse

Adults

Grilse

Females

Sept. 14-18 357*/2,819 572 Sept. 19-25 3,171 516 203* Sept. 26-Oct. 2 2,777 809 248* Oct. 3-9 2,828 1,187 4* Oct. 10-16 2,209 1,314 Oct. 17-23 2,219 999 Oct. 24- 30 . 1,639 523 Oct.. 31- Nov.6 485 93 Nov. 7 – 13 358 68 Nov. 14- 20 44 16 Nov. 21 –27 32 10 Nov. 29 7 0 88 39 Dec. 6 43 29 Dec. 13

172 123

Dec. 20

93 Dec. 28

105 70 Jan. 03

106 68 Jan. 10

52 36 Jan. 18

140 69 Jan. 24

21 13 Jan 31 237 94 Feb. 07 60 35 Feb. 14 82 25 Feb. 22

11 Feb. 28

7 Mar. 7 20 3 Mar. 14

9 0 Marc 28

0 April 18

*”early springs-fish that were marked in the Spring and taken as they enter the hatchery.

-7- APPENDIX TABLE 2. Fork Length ( to nearest centimeter ) of Adipose Marked Chinook Salmon at Feather River Hatchery, 2002-03

3 31 4 FL Males Females 65

* 1 * 9 35 2 9 44 66 1 4 17 3 7 67 45 6 17 1 9 1 1 68 46 2 4 47 *pring run 1 4 48 1 10 49 55 105 1 50 9 18 51 17 33 3 52 11 42 53 19 32 54 28 51 3 55 17 57 1 56 15 35 1 2 57 24 53 1 58 19 53 2 59 37 93 4 60 12 13 1 11 61 14 54 4 62 12 32 1 63 9 26 1 7 64

FL Males Females FL Males Females 93 * 1 16 * 1 3 * 13 * 2 11 69 94 3 22 5 3 4 20 2 4 23 3 38 95 70 96 2 16 1 2 4 21 21 71 97 2 9 2 7 5 13 72 98 4 8 2 8 14 3 32 99 3 10 1 73 100 4 16 1 10 5 23 74 101 1 7 6 11 7 22 4 5 1 75 102 2 1 15 10 23 103 76 104 5 7 16 7 31 77 105 2 5 11 11 31 106 4 78

2 23 7 33 107 79 108 2 16 31 15 50 80 109 8 25 8 36 110 1 81 111 1 2 9 23 3 40 82 120 1 6 27 9 40 83 122 1 7 25 5 29 84 40 1 8 20 4 32 85 41 1 6 12 23 3 16 42 1 2 86 9 25 2 37 43 0 10 87 10 35 5 14 149 669 107 586 88 Total 9 21 3 14 89 total 1255 9 48 12 11 90 7 20 3 8 91 92 5 12 7 TABLE 3. Steelhead Spawning Data, Feather River Hatchery

Fish Spawned Male

Female Dec. 13, 2004

3 Dec. 20, 2004

22 Dec. 28, 2004

36 27 Jan. 03, 2005

34 Jan. 10, 2005 80 52 Jan. 18, 2005

54 Jan. 24, 2005 72 49 Jan. 31, 2005

23 Feb. 07, 2005 40

35 Feb. 14, 2005 39 33 Feb. 22, 2005 24 17 Feb. 28, 2005 23 13 March 7, 2005 10 7 March 14, 2005 3 3

Table 4. Steelhead Planting Summary, 200 Feather River Hatchery

Date Strain Release Site

Average Size Number Released

Feb. 2005 FR-04 Feather River Live Oak Boat Ramp 4.3 fish/lb.

420,772 Add Clipped

Feather River Boyd=s Pump 3.7 fish/lb. 80,000 Add Clipped Four Pumps- Mitigation

June 2005 FR-04 Feather River (Bedrock Beach) 1.2 fish/ lb.

1,229 Add Clipped Total

500,772

-9- TABLE 5. Chinook salmon Planting Summary, Feather River Hatchery, Fall Run BY 2003

Race Month Avg. Number Remarks Release Site of size Released Release 06-1-1-3-6=53,205 Fall Run Feb. 320 53,205 Sacramento River-Yolo Bypass 06-1-1-3-5=55,588 BY 04 Feb. 320 55,588 Sacramento River- Elkhorn Regional park Feb. 294 52,960 06-1-1-3-8= 52,960 Sacramento River-Yolo Bypass Feb. 294 55,433 06-1-1-3-7=55,433 Sacramento River-Elkhorn Regional park Feb. 294 51,962 06-1-1-4-1=25,981;06-1-1-4-2=25,981 Mokelumne River Lighthouse Marina Feb. 294 51,992 06-1-1-4-3=26,208; 06-1-1-4-4=25,964 Sacramento River-Isleton Feb. 376 51,888 06-1-1-3-9=25,763; 06-1-1-4-0=26,124 Mokelumne River- Lighthouse Marina Feb. 376 53,177 06-1-1-4-5=25,90; 06-1-1-4-6=27,277 Sacramento River-Isleton April 62 51,144 06-24-30=25,500; 06-24-31=25,644 Sacramento River- Broaderick boat ramp April 102 52,335 06-24-32=26,144; 06-24-33=26,191 San Joaquin River- Sherman island April 86 51,390 06-24-28=25,372; 06-24-28=26,018 Sacramento River- Broadereick boat ramp April 202 2,090 (3 trips) orange & green Caudal=1,030 ea.; red C, blue, Sacramento River-river mile 206 pink & yellow Anal- 530ea.; pink & blue C= 515 ea. Yellow C =265, /green, red & orange Anal= 202 May 3,090 (1 trip) 265 200 4,180 (1 trip) white, dark blue & Violet, Anal & Caudal= 515 ea. ? May 5 25,578 06-24-36=25,578 Suisun Bay-Port Chicago Naval Weapon Station

May 56 53,122 06-24-34=25,946; 06-24-35=28,176 Sacramento River- Broadereick boat ramp May 60 233,093 06-24-14=114,216; 06-24-15= 118,877 San Pablo Bay-Shore Terminal Net pens May 58.9 239,377 06-24-13=119,960; 06-24-12= 119,377 San Pablo Bay-Shore Terminal

June 58 230,970 06-24-16= 117,398; 06-27-97= 60,493; 06- San Pablo Bay-Shore Terminal 27-98=53,258 Net pens June 39 231,992 06-24-17= 116,573; 06-27-95= 59,463; 06- San Pablo Bay-Shore Terminal 27-96= 55,956 Net pens

Chinook salmon Planting Summary, Feather River Hatchery, 2003-04 Fall Run Continued

May 50.6 1,468,400 No marks-production-Net Pens San Pablo Bay-(Shore Terminal) 90 San Pablo Ave. June 47.3 3,089,276 No marks-Production-Net Pens San Pablo Bay-(Shore 715,300 No marks-Production Terminal) 90 San Pablo Ave April 30 313,50 Enhancement-No marks 9th Street Boat Ramp-Benicia 105,00 Enhancement-No marks-Net Pens May 24 1,127,800 Enhancement- No marks-Net Pens San Pablo Bay-(Shore 135,700 Enhancement-No marks Terminal) 90 San Pablo Ave

th 81,200 Enhancement-No marks Benicia- 9 Street landing 66,700 Enhancement-No marks Vallejo- -11-

TABLE 6 Chinook Salmon Planting Summary, Feather River Hatchery, Spring Run 2004-05

Race Month of Avg. Number Remarks Release Site Spring Release size Released Run Fish/lb BY 04 Jan. 577 2,048,546 No tags Feather River- Live Oak “late” Boat Ramp Feb 758 236,430 06-24-19=119,388; 06-24-275= 58,342; 06-24-26=58,700 Feather River- Live Oak “late” The total # of fish planted is the same # tagged. Boat Ramp Feb. 748 233,635 06-24-18=114,136; 06-24-24=59,053; 06-24-25=60,446 Feather River- Verona “late” The total # of fish planted is the same # tagged

May 43 702,273 06-24-20=119,349; 06-24-10=119,947; 06-24-11=118,512 San Pablo Bay-(Shore Terminal) 90 San Pablo Ave “early” 06-24-43=58,296; 06-24-44=57,100; 06-24-45= 57,602; 06- 24-46= 57,602; 06-24-47= 57,745; 06-24-99=56,128 From the total 330,071 fish went to the Net Pens “early” 28.2 636,434 06-24-24= 120,492; 06-24-22= 114,802; 06-24-23= 54,380; Feather River- Live Oak 06-24-37= 60,094; 06-24-38= 58,473; 06-24-39= 55,902; 06-24-40= 57,161; 06-24-41= 57,317; 06-24-42= 57,813 -12-

Trapping Record at Feather River Hatchery

Year Spring Run Chinook Fall Run Chinook Steelhead

1,85 6

no info 1968 171

5,446 1,005 1969 no info no info 361 1970 235

3,346 no info 1971 484

3,539 78 1972 256

3,635 288 1973 205

8,477 1,000 1974 198

5,428 715 1975 691

5,025 758 1976 713

5,198 573 1977 194

8,787 163 1978 202

4,759 153 1979 250

4,090 189 1980 122

3,690 238 1981 469

8,282 414 1982 1,910

7,778 537 1983 1,710

7,699 1,238 1984 1,562

9,288 783 1985 1,632

5,811 1,721 1986 1,433

8,628 1,553 1987 1,213

10,108 1,018 1988 6,883

6,480 2,587 1989 5,078

7,578 1,106 1990 1,893

6,126 1,193 1991 3,338

7,830 1,025 1992 1,670

16,636 1,028 1993 4,672

11,985 297 1994 3,641 15,202 1,594 1995

12,149

1996 6,381

8,107 1,058 1997 3,653

15,080 2,113 1998 6,746

17,554 1,023 1999 3,731

12,932 633 2000 3,657 18,146 1,742 2001 4,078

24,870 2,056 2002 4,189 20,507 1,431 2003 8,762 14,958 2,929 2004 811*/4202 21,304 1,505 2086

*Note: these were fish that were hall print tagged in May/June and came back in the Fall.

Comments BY Spring Run Chinook Fall Run Chinook Steelhead Received Spawn Received Spawn Received Spawn W/ ad. Fin M F M F J M F M F J M F M F M F 67 55 88 12 29 3 287 293 70 118 1276 68 68 59 36 60 - 1149 2305 368 2224 1276 Total 1005 85 60 69 114 169 56 140 - 2864 1515 284 1242 1760 176 185 79 124 SRBy’68 –112 Sp. Sum of’68 70 82 153 27 65 - FR381 FR897 370 1423 942 W104 W107 W63 W66 Coho in N4867 N640 D930 D1542 23M/35F By67 By67 SpF35 71 272 212 45 211 - 2068 1471 302 1420 1171 W36 W42 W28 W46 D125 D189 D339 D1469 7 6 72 128 116 41 90 - 643 744 196 717 2246 W160 W128 W46 W98 D52 D 717 73 104 101 24 98 57 3515 3670 906 3224 1292 D455 D545 W123 W300 Winter run’73 Total W300 D143 D247 118M/31F in channel 74 83 69 33 29 46 2005 2966 728 2225 1057 341 374 W217 W366 Winter run’74 D53 D76 87M/101F- 101SF 75 283 330 260 309 78 1995 2259 1804 2066 1051 343 415 W199 W289 D 53 D 79 76 432 281 151 354 14 2047 2223 1730 2140 902 312 261 292 245 77 78 116 35 95 18 3525 4749 2894 3982 513 79 84 71 73 ALL WILD total Rdbf from 3518 1122 total lf 159 59 78 90 112 ? 32 ? 2048 1792 1759 919 67 84 41 58 79 83 167 83 167 2 1839 1601 1829 1552 643 109 80 106 80 80 64 58 39 41 0 1968 1722 1469 1697 490 316 150 164 135 N,Klamath,Was hougal SH Rec. 81 211 145 ? 135 113 Total 7251 ? 3167 1031 329 218 265 207 Sh-n rec. 82 770 930 616 426 210 4223 3901 2490 3693 1243 450 441 323 293 Sh-n rec. 83 724 916 866 683 72 2683 3389 2543 3260 1627 720 518 571 480 84 831 480 828 459 251 4311 4457 3740 3641 522 369 414 175 411 - - 85 801 792 479 589 39 2330 3270 1843 2737 211 1047 608 257 233 - - 86 546 696 388 408 191 2614 3203 2367 2810 2811 437 666 290 436 - - 87 489 437 268 208 287 3117 3390 2884 3118 3601 503 535 177 294 - - 88 3780 2770 2831 1652 283 3046 3434 2366 2722 317 440 814 412 572 - - 89 2207 2178 1694 1520 693 3192 3285 2967 2745 1101 301 409 277 329 - - 90 715 591 684 580 587 1799 2457 1720 2392 1870 152 364 105 292 - - 91 1812 1491 1274 1264 155 3055 4775 2497 4076 1481 342 438 248 395 - - 92 680 644 506 577 173 4343 5676 4073 5278 6105 225 428 182 363 - - 93 1757 2186 1058 1348 729 3821 6398 2863 4237 1766 44 131 43 130 - - 94 1406 1369 1209 1333 856 5565 4553 2918 3933 5084 765 829 276 572 - - 95 2484 2508 1775 1261 216 5179 5953 4232 3927 587 427 631 203 346 - - 96 2705 2693 1581 1287 693 3164 3794 2409 3088 1752 69 200 44 183 - - 97 3237 2997 706 654 682 7173 6024 3350 3085 1765 927 1136 253 227 - - 98 2986 3252 1627 942 508 8513 9051 5505 5544 1325 384 498 214 230 - - 99 2212 2119 1264 891 203 6046 5618 4983 4895 1263 237 246 173 169 - - 00 2171 1486 826 403 315 10043 6427 6202 5215 1678 590 497 408 311 4 2 01 2158 1893 1269 971 27 13854/ 10136 11123 7945 612 1137 864 898 751 7 4 814 02 2220 1762 906 401 207 9678 7838 7666 5888 2991 724 693 392 382 03 4608 3765 851 534 389 7095 6511 6186 5307 1352/ 1712/ 1,153/ 784 678 33** 25* 17*

04 420^ 391^ 389^ 360^ 0 8585 7185 7414 6665 5535/ 842/ 635/ 417 325 2 1680 1139 1349 849 572/ 200** 16* 12* 13** 05 1357/ 715/ 515 372 0 0 11* 3* * Steelhead 16” or shorter ** Jacks Spawned ^ “early Springs”

PUBLIC RELATIONS All visitors to the hatchery are counted by car-loads by sensors in the visitor parking lots, and formal tours conducted by Department of Water Resources personnel. A total of 219,276 people toured the hatchery and the ladder viewing windows.

Feather River Hatchery Monthly Visitation Month Number of Visitors

July 10,492 August 24,006 September 28,300 October 21,271 November 13,180 December 8,477 January 9,226 February 6,654 March

April 7,082 May 8,156 June 8,580

Total 152,802

AVERAGE WATER TEMPERATURE BY MONTH

DATE * LOW TEMP HIGH TEMP MEAN TEMP July 1-31/03 56 degrees 61 degrees 58.6 degrees August 1-31/03 53 degrees 60 degrees 57.3 degrees September 1-30/03 51 degrees 54 degrees 52.4 degrees October 1-31/03 50 degrees 53 degrees 51.6 degrees November 1-30/03 50 degrees 54 degrees 51.3 degrees December 1-31/03 46 degrees 51 degrees 48.5 degrees January 1-31/04 44 degrees 47 degrees 45.7 degrees February 1-28/04 44 degrees 47 degrees 45.3 degrees March 1-31/04 45 degrees 48 degrees 45.9 degrees April 1-30/04 49 degrees 52 degrees 50.0 degrees May 1-31/04 51 degrees 56 degrees 54.4 degrees June 1-30/04 56 degrees 60 degrees 58.1 degrees

* All temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit

SPAWNING PROCEDURE FOR 2004

In order to continue the monitoring of fish that were tagged in April and May (2004), the logistics of the spawning operations were change to reflect the monitoring. The ladder was opened on September 13, 2004, 10 days later than normal (the ladder is usually open the Monday after Labor Day). Typically, the fish are move into the round tanks; they are counted as they enter the tanks, this is done by having three people, and an average is taken. In a normal year, fish are held for about three weeks before they are sexed and spawned. The mortality that occurs during this time is about 20%. In order to maintain high survivability for the tagged fish, the decision was made to open the ladder September 15th. In a consequent meeting, the decision was made to open the ladder the 13th of September. This will allow the take of what has been consider spring run fish until September 15th. Non tagged fish that enter between September 13-15 and spawn before October 7th, will be considered Spring Run late (SRL)Typically the fish ladder opens the day after Labor Day. From that date to September 15th, fish have been considered spring run. From September 15th on they were considered fall run.

The following procedures were given to the crew before the ladder was open:

SPAWNING PROTOCOL FOR 2004

 We will open the ladder on 9/13, and start sorting on 9/14(if trap contains a significant number of fish).

 Round tanks 1 & 2 will be reserved for floy tagged spring run fish

 All floy tagged fish are Spring Run early (SRE), and will be spawned only with other tagged fish regardless of spawning time.

 Each time we sort incoming fish, green tagged SRE will go into tank 1 (This will mean they must be carried to the channel leading to tank 1.

 Ripe tagged SRE will go into tank 2 (We will hold to be sure we have both males and females)

 Untagged green fish arriving before 9/15,(SRL) will go to tank 4,ripe fish will be spawned as they arrive.

 After 9/15, all untagged fish will be called Fall Run (FR) with the ripe fish spawned as they arrive and the green fish going into tank 3.

 We will have to manage the trap density by the use of the barrier in the ladder, opening and closing to regulate the number of fish in the trap to minimize stress and higher than normal fish losses.

After the first two days of spawning, some of the procedures were modify as follows:

The green fish with Floy tags will go into tank 2. The fish that are tagged and ready to spawn will stay in the channel between tanks 1 and 2. If there is enough fish to spawn, they will be spawned at the end of the day. The designations of the tanks have changed due to the number of fish that came in before the 15th. Tank 2 will continued to be designated as the tank for the Floy tagged fish. We will continue to segregate and spawn these fish.

The following are the current designations:

2004 SALMON RUN DESIGNATIONS

SPRING RUN EARLY...... .TAGGED FISH (WILL SPAWN UNTIL GONE) SPRING RUN .......FISH RECEIVED 9/15 and MIDNIGHT 9/15 (Spawn before October 7th.)

FALL RUN EARLY ...... FISH RECEIVED BETWEEN 9/16 AND 9/30

FALL RUN....FISH RECEIVED 10/1 AND AFTER

2004 SPRING RUN SALMON TRAPPED

NUMBER RECAPTURES MORTALITIES

SALMON % OF % OF % OF % OF DATE TRAPPED RECAPTURES DAY TAGGED MORTALITIES DAY TAGGED

5/17/04 101 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00

5/18/04 320 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00

5/20/04 46 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0.00

5/24/04 486 7 1.42 0.19 1 0.21 0.03

5/27/04 322 8 2.42 0.22 4 1.24 0.11

5/28/04 56 0.00 0.00 1 1.79 0.03

6/1/04 641 15 2.29 0.41 10 1.56 0.27

6/2/04 343 22 6.03 0.60 2 0.58 0.05

6/3/04 80 8 9.09 0.22 0 0.00 0.00

6/7/04 580 45 7.20 1.23 4 0.69 0.11

6/8/04 289 68 19.05 1.86 4 1.38 0.11

6/10/04 274 52 15.95 1.42 4 1.46 0.11

6/14/04 114 37 24.50 1.01 0 0.00 0.00

6/17/04 2 5 71.43 0.14 0 0.00 0.00 #DIV/0! 0.00 #DIV/0! 0.00

#DIV/0! 0.00 #DIV/0! 0.00

TOTAL 3654 267 7.31 30 0.82

Note: Some ( 2 as of 6/7/04) additional tagged mortalities were found in the river

OTOLITH MARKING TRIALS FOR FEATHER RIVER HATCHERY 04/05 by Penny Crawshaw

During the summer all incubator stacks were plumbed with a separate line coming in from the chiller. This would allow us to mark all stacks, due to the lack of chilled water output only 10 stacks can be marked at one time, which will limit the amount of egg lots that can be marked. Time period for retrofit was a total of 2 weeks. Approximate cost for this was, $7205.00 (including labor).

Four groups of fall run Chinook salmon were used for trials. Each with a different marking sequence; Group 1 & 2 were marked both pre hatch and post hatch, groups 3 & 4 were marked with only a post hatch mark.

Group 1: Fall run eggs from lot 14 (spawned 10/8/04), number of eggs marked 300,150. Pre hatch marking began on 11/12/04 day 34 of incubation temperature at time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.9 for a period of 7 hrs. Temperature was taken every hour during marking period, no changes occurred. This procedure was repeated on 11/15, 11/17, and 11/20 all of which were 7- hour mark with an average drop in temperature of 5.6 degrees. Post hatch marking began on 11/29/04 day 52 of incubation; temperature at time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.6 for a period of 7 hrs. Temperature was taken every hour during marking period, no change occurred. This procedure was repeated on 12/02,12/04,12/06,12/09, and 12/11, for a total of 6 marks all of which were 7- hour marks with an average temperature drop of 5.1 degrees. No significant loss occurred during pre hatch or post hatch marking. Marked fish were ponded 12/24/04 taking any average loss of 12%. Number of fish ponded was 264,132; man hrs required 70.

Group 2: Fall run eggs from lot 14 (spawned 10/08/04) were 13,920 eggs and from lot 15 (spawned 10/12/04) were 303,030eggs. Pre hatch marking began on11/12/04 day 34 & 39 of incubation temperature at time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.9 degrees for a period of 7 hrs. Temperature was taken every hour, no changes occurred. This procedure was repeated again on 11/16, 11/18, and 11/20 all of which were 7 hr. mark with an average drop in temperature of 5.3 degrees. Post hatch marking began on 12/29/04 day 52 & 56 of incubation; temperature at time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.6 for a period of 7 hrs. Temperature was taken every hour during marking period, no changes occurred. The same procedure was repeated on 12/02, 12/04,12/07, 12/09, and 12/11, for a total of 6 marks all of which were 7- hour mark with an average temperature drop of 5.1 degrees. Group 2 also showed no significant loss during marking periods. Marked fish were ponded on 12/28/04 taking an average loss of 12%. Number of fish ponded was 278,916. Man hrs required 70.

Group 3: This group was only marked with a post hatch mark; fall run eggs from lot 16 (spawned 10/13/04) marked were 277, 200. Post hatch marking began on 11/29/04 day 57 of incubation temperature at time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.6 for a period of 7 hrs. Temperature was taken every hour during marking, no changes occurred. This process was repeated 12/02, 12/04, 12/06, 12/09, and 12/11, for a total of 6 marks of which all were 7-hour marks. This group also showed no significant loss during marking period. Fish were ponded on 12/28/04 taking an average loss of 12%. Number of fish ponded was 243,936. Man hrs required 42.

Group 4: This group was also only post hatched marked; fall run eggs from lot 17 (spawned 10/17/04) marked were 321,300. Marking began on 11/29/04 day 58 of incubation temperature and time of marking was 50.8 and was dropped to 44.6 for a period of 7hrs. Temperature was taken every hour, no significant changes occurred. This procedure was repeated on 12/02, 12/04, 12/06, 12/09, and 12/11 for a total of 6 marks of which all were 7-hour mark. This group showed no significant loss during marking period. Fish were pond of 12/28/04 taking an average loss of 12%. Number of fish ponded was 282,744. Man hrs required 42.

During 2003/2004 spawning season trials were done using a 4 hour mark which resulted in a non visible mark, but the 7 hour mark that was used during the 204/2005 spawning season was clearly visual and the marks were more distinguishable between the markings. In order to do the 7-hour marking it will be necessary to be able to mark more lots at once. The chiller capacity as of right now will only supply enough chilled water to mark at the maximum of 10 stacks, which depending on lot size could only be 3 to 4 lots. Another concern is the ability of the chiller to only drop the temperature to 44 degrees if the starting temperature is at 48 degrees it will be barely meeting minimal marking temperature. Another concern is that during the pre hatch marking in order to separate lots for marking we may have insufficient incubation stacks, thus the need for more plumbing to be installed and incubator stacks to be purchase. In order to adequately perform the marking procedures, and record all data that is required it will be very time consuming, just to mark the stacks that were marked this season required over 224 man hours and only four of the lots were marked. The average number of lots is 32, at the average of ten marks per lot it would require at a minimum of 2240 man hours which is equivalent to a 160 hour a month position for 14 months. The plans for the 2005/2006 spawning season will be to post hatched marked all the lots for the first time. This experiment will allow us to work on the logistics to see if the making program will work. For the 2006/2007 season will attempt, for the first time, to implement both pre hatch and post hatch marked. All this will depend on the outcome of the 2005/06 season. So the needs for implementing the Otoliths marking program will require immediate attention to successfully achieve maximum marking capabilities.