Kelt Steelhead Studies: Evaluating Reconditioning and Reproductive Success in the Columbia River Bas

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Kelt Steelhead Studies Evaluating Reconditioning
and Reproductive Success in the Columbia River
Basin
Douglas R. Hatch, Ryan Branstetter, John
Whiteaker, Shawn Narum, Jeff Stephenson Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Dave Fast,
Joe Blodgett, Bill Bosch, Todd Newsome Yakama
Nation Fisheries Devin Best, Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon Chris
Fisher, Rhonda Dasher Confederated Tribes of the
Colville Reservation Tracy Hauser Bonneville
Power Administration
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Kelt Reconditioning Research in the Columbia
Basin 2000-017-00

• Initiated in 2000, just started our 3rd year
  following the rolling provincial review.
• This projects proposal included geographic
  replication, but between the recommendation stage
  in the rolling provincial review process and
  final budget agreement between NPCC and
  Bonneville, the project budget was reduced by
  155,000. This resulted in the geographic
  replication being dropped.
• Proposed in the 07-09 Project Solicitation with
  Yakima River and Snake River components.

Evaluate Relative Reproductive Success of
Natural-Origin, Hatchery-Origin, and
Reconditioned Kelt Steelhead 2003-062-00

• Response to the Bonneville Request for Studies
  (RFS).
• Project started in February 2004, we will begin
  our 3rd year on April 1, 2006.
• Proposed in the 07-09 Project Solicitation with
  similar scope.

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Objectives Kelt Steelhead Reconditioning Study

• Evaluate effects of directly transporting
  steelhead kelts around the hydro system on
  enhancement of iteroparity.
• Evaluate effects of short-term kelt
  reconditioning and subsequent transportation of
  kelts around the hydro system on enhancement of
  iteroparity. Short-term reconditioning will be
  performed using fish from collection facilities
  within the Yakima, Umatilla, Grande Ronde, and
  Imnaha river basins.
• Evaluate effects of long-term kelt reconditioning
  and subsequent release for natural spawning on
  enhancement of iteroparity.
• Evaluate effects of long-term kelt reconditioning
  and captive spawning on a) gamete and progeny
  viability and b) enhancement of iteroparity.

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Prosser Hatchery Operation
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Management Scenarios

• In-river release Capture kelt PIT tag
  release.
• No-term- Capture kelt, tag, transport below
  Bonneville Dam and release.
• Short-term -- Capture kelt, tag, feed for 6
  weeks, transport below Bonneville Dam and
  release.
• Long-term Capture kelt, tag, feed for 7months
  determine maturation level, and release in river.

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-No-term and Short-term migration evaluations.
-Detection patterns in 2005 based on
hydro-acoustic tags. -pooled results from all
treatment groups. -n120
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Final detection location for no-term (NT) and
short-term (ST) treatments in 2004 and 2005.
Receivers were located only in the estuary and
ocean in 2004.
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Survival to release of reconditioned kelt
steelhead from the Yakima River
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Objectives Reproductive Success Study

• Identify specific streams where reproductive
  success of natural-origin, hatchery-origin, and
  reconditioned kelt steelhead can be tested.
• Evaluate reproductive success of natural-origin,
  hatchery-origin, and reconditioned kelt steelhead
  and adult resident O.mykiss at a variety of
  streams in the Upper Columbia, Mid-Columbia, and
  Snake River ESUs using pedigree analysis.
• Apply kelt steelhead reconditioning techniques at
  selected streams to post-spawners for release
  back into study streams.

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• Rationale

• We have established that kelt reconditioning is
  possible and have demonstrated successful
  spawning migrations and redd construction (BPA
  Project 200001700).
• However, the reproductive success of
  reconditioned kelts needs to be explored to
  assess the net benefit of this program. In
  addition, comparisons to natural origin first
  time spawners can be used to evaluate
  reconditioned kelt contributions relative to a
  first time spawner baseline, and comparisons with
  hatchery origin steelhead is important to
  evaluate if kelt reconditioning is a viable
  alternative to more traditional hatchery
  supplementation.
• Technological advances in DNA-typing make direct
  measurement of reproductive success using
  pedigree analysis practical. Employing these new
  techniques, our study will directly measure the
  reproductive success of natural-origin,
  hatchery-origin, and reconditioned kelt steelhead
  in natural stream settings. This will yield
  quantitative data replicated geographically and
  temporally that will add resolution to the issue.
  

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General Scheme

• Chose 3 or more replicate streams.
• Within each stream genotype all possible O.
  mykiss spawners (including anadromous and
  resident fish).
• Collect representative sample of juvenile O.
  mykiss and using parentage analysis match them
  with parents.
• Hypothesis The composition of spawners
  (hatchery-origin, natural-origin, reconditioned
  kelt) is the same as the composition of parents
  of a representative sample of juveniles.

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Study Stream Selection Criteria

• A relatively low (but not too low) abundance of
  adult steelhead in the stream (200).
• The stream must have hydrological conditions that
  are favorable to using a weir during the
  steelhead migration.
• The stream must also have a suitable location for
  a rotary screw trap or some other juvenile trap.
• Prefer a stream with low abundance of resident O.
  mykiss.
• Stream location should be relatively close to a
  hatchery facility for reconditioning.

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Streams selected

• Shitike Creek Deschutes River tributary.
• Omak Creek Okanogan River tributary.
• Bonaparte Creek Okanogan River tributary.
• Ahtanum Creek Yakima River.
• Section Corner Creek Tributary to Satus
  Creek/Yakima River. Field laboratory

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Shitike Creek
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Omak Creek
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Section Corner Creek
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Challenges

• Low water in 2005
• Low fish abundance
• Inexperience in reconditioning
• Incomplete sampling
• Brook Trout sampling

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Kelt Reproductive SuccessGenetic Results
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Sample Numbers

• 759 samples genotyped with 17 microsatellites
• 32 known Brook Trout
• 1 parr identified as a brook trout
• 17 unknown source samples
• 7 duplicate samples
• 43 poor quality samples
• 659 samples included in statistical analysis

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Genetic Tests

• Diversity Statistics
• Expected and Observed Heterozygosity
• Number of Alleles and Allelic Richness
• Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
• Genotypic Linkage Disequilibrium
• Pairwise FST Values / Genic differentiation rates
• Pairwise genetic distances / Neighbor joining
  tree
• Parentage Analysis

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Diversity statistics n
sample size HE expected heterozygosity
HO observed heterozygosity A
Average number of alleles per locus AR
Allelic richness
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Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium

• 161 Total Tests
• 16 significant
• 12 In Section Corner Creek juveniles
• 2 in Omak Creek residents below Mission Falls
• 1 in Omak Creek adult steelhead
• 1 in Yakima River kelt steelhead

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Linkage Disequilibrium

• 1168 pairwise tests
• 250 were significant
• 128 in Section Corner Creek juveniles
• 83 in Omak Creek residents below Mission Falls
• 39 in Omak Creek steelhead

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Pairwise FST Values / Genic differentiation rates
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Neighbor joining dendrogram Cavalli-Sforza
Edwards genetic distance
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Parentage AnalysisSection Corner Creek

• 5 males from Satus Creek
• 6 females from Satus Creek
• 5 female kelts from Yakima River
• Assigned all 159 juveniles back to a single
  parental cross.

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Parentage Assignment Matrix Section Corner Creek
Overripe Partially Blind
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Parentage Analysis Shitike Creek

• Adult Steelhead from Shitike Creek
• Resident Rainbow Trout from Shitike Creek
• Limited results in assigning juveniles back to
  potential parents

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Parentage AnalysisShitike Creek

• Shitike Creek juveniles grouped closest to
  Shitike Creek resident rainbow trout on the
  neighbor joining tree.
• Shitike Creek Juveniles and Shitike Creek
  resident rainbow trout had an insignificant FST
  Value.
• Many residents unsampled.
• The fall migration of juveniles sampled in 2005
  were comprised of progeny from unsampled resident
  rainbow trout.

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Summary

• Average survival in long-term reconditioning
  experiments 46.
• Two movement patterns have been detected in the
  estuary.
• Kelts appear to not reside in the estuary.
• Reproductive success experiment sites have been
  chosen and tests are in progress.
• Kelts placed into Section Corner Creek did not
  contribute to the progeny collected.
• Overripe
• Blind
• Parentage assignment worked well (159 of 159
  Section Corner Creek juveniles).