BPA funded project (2010-026-00). 

Project Leaders:  John Hargrove, john.hargrove@idfg.idaho.gov

NOAA recommends that to demonstrate ESU/DPS viability, annual documentation of a variety of biological parameters (including adult and juvenile abundance, age distribution, sex ratio, length, and run timing) is needed at the population, major population grouping, and ESU/DPS level for each listed species. This collaborative project with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, utilizes Genetic Stock Identification (GSI) of Snake River steelhead and Chinook salmon adults and juveniles at Lower Granite Dam to provide estimates of these VSP parameters annually at the MPG and ESU/DPS level. GSI uses multi-locus genotype data from reference populations (presumably representing all contributing stocks) as a baseline and a complimentary set of genotype data from mixtures of fish of unknown origin to estimate stock proportions within the mixture. This project also provides several measures of genetic diversity and life history characteristics for adult steelhead and Chinook salmon detected at PIT tag arrays in the Snake River basin.

This project works directly with the Idaho Natural Production Monitoring and Evaluation Program (1990-055-00) and the Idaho Steelhead Monitoring and Evaluation Program (1991-073-00) to estimate the abundance and composition of wild adult steelhead and spring-summer Chinook salmon returning to the Snake River basin by body size (steelhead only), age, gender, and stock.

Important additional collaborators on this work includes:

-Nez Perce Tribe

-Idaho Office of Species Conservation (IOSC)

-Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC)

-Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC)

-Quantitative Consultants, Inc. (QCI)

-U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

-Lower Snake River Compensation Program (LSRCP