The Port Armstrong Hatchery (PAH), which is owned and operated by Armstrong-Keta, Inc. (AKI), has been producing cohos annually since 1988 and Chinooks since 2001. The expansion of facilities at PAH for the production of both species has been supported by a series of Chinook Mitigation grants, including the US/Canada Mitigation Fund, the Southeast Sustainable Salmon Fund and the Chinook Mitigation Fund and these projects have had full support of the Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) and various Southeast Alaska communities. The ATA has encouraged AKI to submit this current application for boosting coho and Chinook production by acquiring additional net pens and making use of our new early introduction saltwater techniques, thereby avoiding the burdensome costs of developing increased freshwater delivery to the hatchery and installing on-land rearing raceways. The management and staff of the Little Port Walter Research Station have been similarly encouraging of this plan, as they have decades of expertise in the propagation of various Chinook stocks for dissemination to production hatcheries throughout Southeast Alaska and are interested in increasing their contributions to the Alaska salmon industry via collaboration with the salmon enhancement hatcheries.

AKI’s goal is to maximize the return of adult coho and Chinook salmon to lower Chatham Strait in order to benefit the troll and sport fisheries. Common property contributions of Port Armstrong cohos have ranged from 42% to 67%, with averages over 50%, as measured by ADF&G coded-wire tag recoveries. PAH has experienced higher contribution rates in recent years and also in years when buyers have been stationed locally, which in turn increases the number of trollers in the area. There is currently a processor stationing a buying barge at Port Armstrong each summer to take advantage our PAH production as well as the wild salmon in the area.

Hatchery fish are a significant component of fisheries subject to management under the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), and research on the costs and benefits of additional enhancement opportunities is a priority of the Northern Fund. The genetic risks of hatcheries, including potential loss of fitness to wild stocks, have been a long-standing concern (Waples and Do 1994, Naish et al. 2008, Grant et al. 2017). This study will investigate domestication in hatchery populations arising from relaxation of natural selection, a little-studied pathway for hatchery-induced changes. The results could have implications for the design of additional enhancement efforts as well as for practices at current enhancement facilities.

Alaska stocks of pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) spend large portions of their life histories in marine waters within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and beyond the 200-mile EEZ of the coastal States. However, the strength of salmon year-classes is often set during the early overwintering phases of immatures or during the nearshore seaward migration phase of juveniles. Thus, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), Auke Bay Laboratories (ABL) initiated the Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project in 1997 to better understand the effects of climate and near-shore Ocean conditions on year-class strength of salmon and ecologically-related species. This research in turn provides improved information for resource management of salmon in the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) northern boundary. In particular SECM data provides a forecast index for northern southeast Alaska (SEAK) Transboundary River Chinook salmon returns, an annual pink salmon abundance forecast, and long term environmental and population data that are used by harvest managers in the PST northern boundary, which includes PST Chapter 2 pink salmon treaty issues in districts 101, 102, 103, and 104.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in concert with Alaska Salmon Hatchery Operators and financial support from the salmon processing community has undertaken a long-term study concerning interactions of hatchery and natural origin salmon in natural systems. Samples have been collected from 4 chum salmon streams in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) for studies of potential relative difference in survival of offspring between hatchery and wild fish spawning in wild stock streams. This information will allow us to assess the ecological and genetic consequences of hatchery strays on fitness of wild spawners at the drainage scale. Evaluation of this scale is important because it will provide insight into how much these consequences can vary locally (and, potentially, why). Adult chum were sampled in 2013 and 2014 to establish genetic markers for identification of progeny in subsequent years. Otolith analysis reveals if a spawner is of hatchery or natural origin and tissue samples will be used to identify parentage of progeny beginning in 2017 and continuing in 2018 – 2023. Fish spawning in the 4 study streams will be similarly sampled for two complete generations; for chum salmon, sampling in each stream will occur over 11 years with the goal to sample F1 and F2 progeny from the first years of the project.

Chinook salmon are harvested in commercial fisheries in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) waters east of Cape Suckling and north of Dixon Entrance. These fisheries harvest mixed stocks of Chinook salmon, including those originating from Alaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific Northwest. Significant numbers of both hatchery and wild stock Chinook salmon have coded-wire-tags (CWTs) inserted into their heads before they are released from hatcheries or as they migrate to sea. These fish are marked externally by removal of the adipose fin. CWTs are recovered by sampling programs intended to sample a minimum proportion of fishery catches and escapements. Analyses of CWT data provide estimates of fishery exploitation rates and other statistics employed for stock/fishery assessments and planning.

The Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) technical committees rely upon selected groups of CWT hatchery and wild Chinook and coho as surrogates to estimate impacts on natural stocks. Recent trends in Pacific Northwest towards mass-marking of Chinook salmon smolts released from hatcheries in conjunction with increased hatchery production up to 150 million smolts annually have resulted in a large volume of adipose fin clipped Chinook salmon in SEAK fisheries that do not contain a CWT (No Tags).

The presence of No Tags exceeded 70% of the adipose-clipped fish sampled during the SEAK summer troll fishery in 2015. Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) commercial fisheries port samplers have utilized visual sampling of these adipose clipped fish to recover CWTs for over three decades. The escalating presence of No Tags in SEAK fisheries has impacted CWT sample rates by statistical week and area. Although most SEAK Commercial Fisheries port samplers are using electronic tag detection wands to determine if a tag is actually present in the head of adipose fin clipped fish; the No Tag rate is so high that it requires two samplers per sampling event to be efficient at examining adipose clipped Chinook salmon harvested in the SEAK troll fisheries to determine if valid CWTs are present before CWT processing protocols are invoked.

In an effort to increase or maintain CWT sample rates and decrease shipping costs we propose to continue funding port sampling staff in the ports of Craig, Juneau, Pelican, Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan, and Sitka. Southeast Alaska port samplers will use electronic tag detection wands to examine adipose clipped Chinook salmon harvested in the summer Southeast Alaska troll fisheries to determine if valid CWTs are present before CWT processing protocols are invoked. The heads of any positively identified tagged fish will be collected and the tags decoded by ADF&G staff. This will increase sampling rates by decreasing the amount of fish heads to be organised and shipped.