Ongoing Supplementation Programs for Summer Chum Salmon in the Hood Canal and Strait of Juan de Fuca Regions of Washington State

Supplementation is being applied as a strategy to reduce the short-term extinction risk of summer chum salmon populations in the Hood Canal and eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca regions and to aid in their recovery. Appropriate indigenous broodstocks are also being used to reintroduce summer chum to watersheds where they have recently been extirpated. These programs are being operated consistent with rigorous standards presented in the Summer Chum Salmon Conservation Initiative, a joint state-tribal plan to recover healthy, self-sustaining populations. We provide here descriptions and results of monitoring and evaluation activities, and general program assessments for individual supplementation and reintroduction programs. Overall, broodstocks have been collected each year that represent the donor populations, genetic sampling has been conducted, the hatchery programs have met established survival rate objectives and production goals, and fish reared and released have been marked to assist in determining the contribution of the programs to the summer chum populations. Each of the programs is ongoing and some have just recently begun. Several of the programs were initiated in 1992 and have been very successful in contributing to the return of adult summer chum. Monitoring and evaluation is ongoing.