Mid-Hood Canal Juvenile Salmonid Evaluation: Duckabush River 2017

Juvenile salmonid monitoring in Hood Canal, Washington has been a collaborative project between the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Long Live the Kings (LLTK), and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's (NWFSC) Manchester Research Station. Monitoring of Pacific salmon and steelhead on the Duckabush River, located in central Hood Canal and draining from the Olympic Mountains, began in 2007. This study measures the juvenile abundance and outmigration timing of Chinook salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon (even years only), coho salmon, and steelhead. We derive independent estimates for summer and fall chum salmon stocks in these watersheds via molecular genetic analysis. For those species with adult abundance surveys (chum, Chinook and pink salmon), we also estimate egg to migrant survival.

In 2017, a floating eight-foot screw trap was located at river mile 0.3 (0.48 rkm) and operated by WDFW from January 9 to June 22. The abundance of juvenile summer chum salmon was over four times larger than fall chum (Table 1). Egg-to-migrant survival was higher for summer than fall chum salmon. The median date of summer chum outmigration occurred 2 weeks earlier than the peak of the fall chum outmigration.

TABLE 1.- Abundance, coefficient of variation (CV), egg-to-migrant survival, average fork length and median out-migration date for juvenile salmonids of natural origin leaving the Duckabush River, 2017.