Growth Rate Modulation in Spring Chinook Salmon Supplementation
Physiology/Endocrinology
Growth Yakima Chinook
Setting a beach seine for wild juvenile spring chinook on the Yakima River
Collecting physiological samples from spring chinook in the field
Tanks installed at the Cle Elum Hatchery for conducting growth modulation experiments in the Yakima spring Chinook supplementation project
Project Title
Growth Rate Modulation in Spring Chinook Salmon Supplementation
Description
This project represents the third major component of a series of
studies on the growth and developmental physiology of hatchery and
wild spring chinook salmon in the Yakima River of Washington State.
Starting with studies in 1990 we designed a physiological template
for naturally rearing juvenile spring chinook salmon (Beckman et al.
2000) as a guide in the development of rearing protocols to produce a
more "wild-like", and in-turn more fit, smolt in hatchery
supplementation programs. In 1997 the Yakima River Spring Chinook
Supplementation Program began rearing spring chinook salmon at the
Cle Elum Hatchery. The second major component of our investigations
has been a multi-year monitoring effort to compare and contrast the
physiological development of wild and supplementation hatchery Yakima
spring chinook both as pre-smolts and downstream migrants. Indices
measured include size, gender, state of maturation, gill Na+/K+-ATPase,
whole body lipid levels and the growth regulating hormones T4 and IGF-I.
By utilizing endocrine and histological tools developed in our team's
basic research studies and captive broodstock program, we were able to
determine that an unnaturally high percentage (50%) of the males in
this program precociously mature at 2 years of age. Thus, we are
currently conducting a growth rate modulation experiment at the Cle
Elum facility to develop rearing protocols to control
uncharacteristically high rates of precocious male maturation in the
hatchery population and to characterize natural levels of precocious
male maturation in the wild stock.
Principal Investigator
Donald Larsen; Resource Enhancement Utilization Technology Division
Collaborators
Brian Beckman and Walt Dickhoff; Resource Enhancement Utilization Technology Division
Setting a beach seine for wild juvenile spring chinook on the Yakima River
Collecting physiological samples from spring chinook in the field
Tanks installed at the Cle Elum Hatchery for conducting growth modulation experiments in the Yakima spring Chinook supplementation project
