Principal Biologist:  Dave Venditti
Project Leaders:   Darcy McCarrick, darcy.mccarrick@idfg.idaho.gov and Odbayar Tumendemberel, odbayar.tumendemberel@idfg.idaho.gov

Supplementation programs can be implemented in a variety of ways, but all use hatchery production to augment naturally spawning fish populations. Supplementation programs have been implemented throughout the Columbia River basin for several decades (ISAB 2003). Recently, integrated broodstock (IB) programs have been developed in an effort to minimize genetic divergence between hatchery donor stocks and recipient wild stocks. A properly integrated program is one where the natural environment drives the adaptation and fitness of a composite population of fish spawning in a hatchery and in the wild (HSRG 2009). This is hypothesized to minimize domestication selection in the hatchery was well as ecological risks to the natural population (HSRG 2009). Integrated broodstock programs may also be used to increase the abundance of natural populations (Sharma et al. 2006; Berejikian et al. 2008), provide harvest opportunities (Fast et al. 2015), minimize risks to wild populations from hatchery straying (Mobrand et al. 2005), provide genetic repositories for natural fish in the hatchery environment (Kline and Flagg 2014), and may expand the distribution of fish spawning in under-utilized habitats (Dittman et al. 2010; Venditti et al. 2015).

This project will: 1) monitor the influence of natural spawners incorporated into integrated broodstocks on hatchery survival, productivity and replacement rates (HRR), and 2) monitor the influence of IB hatchery spawners on naturally spawning populations of Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and natural replacement rates (NRR).

This information will provide managers with a more complete picture of the benefits and risks of implementing IB programs in Idaho, which can guide the implementation of future supplementation strategies for Idaho and other populations in the Columbia River Basin.