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Survival of captured and relocated adult spring-run Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in a Sacramento River tributary after cessation of migration

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Abstract

We studied the efficacy of the process for capture and upstream relocation of 26 adult spring-run Chinook salmon in Butte Creek, California in 2009. These fish had ceased volitional upstream migration prior to reaching their summer holding habitat. The purpose of the relocation was to move fish upstream of two water diversion dams and release them in a part of the stream from which they could presumably swim to cool summer holding habitat, then spawn in the fall. Fish were netted, transported by truck, given an esophageal radio tag/temperature tag, and released. Radio tagging proved to be a useful technique for determining the survival and movement of relocated fish and temperature tags provide useful information to determine thermal exposure and time of death. Twenty-three tags (88 %) were recovered, compared with a 10 % tag recovery rate for an earlier study using fin clips. Most tags were recovered within 3.5 km upstream and 1 km downstream of the release site. A single tag was recovered 6 km upstream. No fish were determined to have survived to spawn. Temperature tag data indicate that most of the salmon died within 2–6 days after the relocation operation. After preventative measures have been exhausted, future relocations efforts, in any setting, should consider (1) intervention as soon as fish cease volitional migration but before they are exposed to further deleterious conditions (2) monitoring environmental conditions to choose appropriate release sites (3) evaluation of disease transmission risk, and (4) handling practices that minimize potential stress due to air immersion and thermal shock.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Allen Harthorn, Pamela Posey, Michael Smith, and Scott Gailey of Friends of Butte Creek for hosting stationary radio receivers on their properties, providing excellent local information, and a place to sleep after long days of tracking; Clint Garman and Tracy McReynolds from the CDFG Chico office for providing transportation, great information, and allowing us to go along on the summer carcass surveys; the Yurok Tribe Fisheries Program for supplying radio tags and stationary receivers; Howard Brown of NMFS and Joe Johnson of CDFG for giving us permission to radio tag the salmon; Jim Bundy of Pacific Gas and Electric for providing access to the remote upper reaches of the summer holding habitat; Avery Cook for assistance in fish tracking and receiver maintenance, and finally, to the large group of CDFG, NMFS, and USFWS personnel who worked on the relocation. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments on several earlier versions this paper. This study was funded in part by US Environmental Protection Agency STAR Grant RD-833017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology Department, University of California Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616-8751, USA

    Christopher M. Mosser & Lisa C. Thompson

  2. Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Yurok Tribe, Rte. Box 169 Highway 96, Weitchpec, CA, 95546, USA

    Joshua S. Strange

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  1. Christopher M. Mosser
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  2. Lisa C. Thompson
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  3. Joshua S. Strange
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Correspondence to Christopher M. Mosser.

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Mosser, C.M., Thompson, L.C. & Strange, J.S. Survival of captured and relocated adult spring-run Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in a Sacramento River tributary after cessation of migration. Environ Biol Fish 96, 405–417 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-012-0046-x

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