Large-Scale Salmon Enhancement Select a topic from the list below Mokelumne River Hatchery Merced River Hatchery Thermalito Afterbay Sacramento Winter Run Iron Gate Hatchery Fish Transport Trailers Net Pens Avila Beach Monterey Bay Rowdy Creek Hatchery, Smith River  Salmon Captive Broodstock Program This project was conceived by an ad-hoc committee which brought biologists from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and DFG together with fishermen from PCFFA, the Tyee Club of San Francisco, and the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association, which represents the California commercial passenger fishing vessel fleet. This committee, operating under the principle of unanimity, proposed rearing 1,000 winter run chinook salmon to adults in captivity for breeding as insurance against losing this endangered run and to help maintain what remained of its genetic variability. While captive rearing significantly lessens the very high mortality suffered by naturally or hatchery spawned juvenile winter-run chinook salmon as they run the gauntlet of unscreened diversions and pumps between the upper Sacramento River or Coleman Hatchery and the Golden Gate, precautions must be taken to ensure population viability. For this reason the project adopted strict protocols to ensure that genetic variability of the endangered winter run would not be lessened further by breeding small numbers of individuals in captivity, a danger that may become acute, even to the point of extinction, with small populations of living organisms. In essence, the progeny of captive-reared fish are released into the wild, while the seed for each generation of captive-reared fish are taken from the wild, so no genetic line experiences more than one generation of captivity in succession. The Salmon Stamp Program provided $25,000 in seed money for this state-of-the-art project. Over a million dollars in initial funding for this multi-million dollar project were leveraged by the Stamp Program decision to support the project. Rearing facilities were constructed at the Bodega Marine Laboratory of the University of California at Davis and at the California Academy of Science’s Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. The Bodega Marine Lab has led a dedicated team of scientists operating this project. Genetic research being conducted as part of the project may lead to new stock identification methods that can be used in the salmon fishery, at production hatcheries, and for monitoring naturally spawning populations of salmon.  Chinook Salmon Recovery Assistance The California commercial salmon fishing and commercial passenger salmon fishing vessel industries, through the Salmon Stamp Program, have long been supportive of efforts to restore protected salmon. In the early 1990’s, a Stamp Program funding commitment made it possible for DFG to hire a biologist whose sole duty was coordinating statewide efforts to restore endangered Sacramento winter-run chinook salmon. The Stamp Program also provided a portion of funding for a captive broodstock project, a joint effort that included U.C. Davis, DFG, and several other state and federal agencies, to rear Sacramento winter-run chinook salmon in a carefully controlled and genetically monitored hatchery environment. This project was an almost-last-ditch effort which had become necessary after winter-run numbers declined precipitously for reasons quite apart from fishing activities. Most recently, the Stamp Program assisted the winter-run recovery effort by providing partial funding for construction and first-year operating costs for a winter-run rearing facility on the Sacramento River just downstream from Shasta Dam. The project is a cooperative effort that includes the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  Chinook Salmon Supplementation Facility This facility was needed to ensure that hatchery-reared winter-run juveniles would return to their native waters, the Sacramento River, to spawn. Before construction of the facility, adult winterrun spawners were trapped near Keswick Dam, the upper limit of salmon migration on the Sacramento River. Fertilized eggs from trapped adults were cultured at Coleman National Fish Hatchery, located on Battle Creek, a major Sacramento River tributary that joins the main river just north of Red Bluff. Coleman hatchery, located on Battle Creek, a tributary stream that enters the Sacramento River a few miles upstream from Red Bluff, has become a state-of-the-art facility in recent times, and is very successful at producing juvenile fall-run and late-fall chinook salmon. However winter-run fish transported there from the Keswick trap for rearing returned to the hatchery as adults instead of to spawning areas in the Sacramento River above Battle Creek as had been hoped. Furthermore, to avoid perpetuating a hatchery run of winter-run salmon, fish returning to the hatchery were destroyed as a matter of policy. As a result, benefit to winter run recovery from rearing winter-run fish at Coleman Hatchery was nil. A rearing facility supplied with water from natural winter run spawning areas was needed. The most reasonable and cost-effective solution was construction and operation of a small satellite rearing facility on the Sacramento River near natural spawning grounds. The facility, located on USBR land a few hundred feet downstream from the Shasta Dam powerhouse, and operated by USFWS, has proven successful and stands as an example of the good that can result from cooperation between government agencies and constituents. The Salmon Stamp was a proud partner in this project.