Puget Sound steelhead marine survival trends: what’s happening to our fish out there?
Presentation Abstract
Steelhead trout numbers are falling dramatically in the Salish Sea and especially in Puget Sound. To better understand the patterns and put them into context, we seek to confirm the declining steelhead abundance and survival trends (both hatchery and wild fish) in Puget Sound and compare these trends with those in neighboring regions. We will first present productivity trends (specifically smolt to adult returns [SAR]) for hatchery and wild steelhead populations. We found that many coastal populations shared a pattern of declining abundance from the mid 1980s through the mid 90s, and that while many of these populations rebounded in the 2000s, Puget Sound SARs continued to decline and have generally remained below those of other regions. Second, we are performing correlative analyses on these SARs with factors potentially affecting survival including wild and hatchery steelhead smolt abundance, individual and population life-history characteristics, environmental data, and buffer prey data. We will evaluate hypotheses about spatial variation in mortality, size-selective mortality, match-mismatch, and life history variation; additional reference regarding whether and where mortality is concentrated; and account for individual or population characteristics that may differentially affect survival.
Session Title
Session S-06D: Marine Survival of Salmon and Steelhead: the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project
Conference Track
Species and Food Webs
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2014 : Seattle, Wash.)
Document Type
Event
Start Date
1-5-2014 1:30 PM
End Date
1-5-2014 3:00 PM
Location
Room 611-612
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Steelhead (Fish)--Mortality--Washington (State)--Puget Sound; Hatchery fishes--Mortality--Washington (State)--Puget Sound
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Puget Sound (Wash.)
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Puget Sound steelhead marine survival trends: what’s happening to our fish out there?
Room 611-612
Steelhead trout numbers are falling dramatically in the Salish Sea and especially in Puget Sound. To better understand the patterns and put them into context, we seek to confirm the declining steelhead abundance and survival trends (both hatchery and wild fish) in Puget Sound and compare these trends with those in neighboring regions. We will first present productivity trends (specifically smolt to adult returns [SAR]) for hatchery and wild steelhead populations. We found that many coastal populations shared a pattern of declining abundance from the mid 1980s through the mid 90s, and that while many of these populations rebounded in the 2000s, Puget Sound SARs continued to decline and have generally remained below those of other regions. Second, we are performing correlative analyses on these SARs with factors potentially affecting survival including wild and hatchery steelhead smolt abundance, individual and population life-history characteristics, environmental data, and buffer prey data. We will evaluate hypotheses about spatial variation in mortality, size-selective mortality, match-mismatch, and life history variation; additional reference regarding whether and where mortality is concentrated; and account for individual or population characteristics that may differentially affect survival.
