Sep 29, 2022

Idaho’s Stanley Basin has long been one of the West’s most iconic roundup arenas. For 160 years, cowboys and their hooved counterparts have comingled out in the vast valley beneath the towering Sawtooth Mountains where they come together each fall to round up the herds.

Idaho Fish and Game has their outfit of wranglers that flock to the Stanley Basin each fall from all corners of the state. And the prized stock pulled in at the end of the day? One of the most emblematic fish in the Pacific Northwest: the sockeye salmon.

Since the mid-1920s, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has operated an egg-collection facility on Henrys Lake to supplement the wild population.  During the late winter, thousands of spawning cutthroat return up the ladder on Hatchery Creek.  Adult fish jump into the spawning shed where they are sorted by sex.  Fish are temporally anesthetized before spawning and taking small fin tissue samples for genetics.  Following spawning and genetic sampling, fish are returned to the lake.  Genetically sampling the broodstock allows the permanent genetic tagging of all of their offspring.  This process is called Parentage Based Tagging (PBT).  PBT is an efficient tool to allow managers to monitor growth and survival of hatchery fish, hybridization, and assess wild reproduction.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/593904559

Click here

Sampling redband trout in the Wood River Basin, Idaho

Click here

Press here