History
LLTK Sets Precedent for Hood Canal Steelhead Recovery on the Hamma Hamma River
Since 1998, the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project, led by NOAA scientist Dr. Barry Berejikian, with rearing and release activities centered at LLTK’s Lilliwaup Hatchery, has investigated the benefits and risks of steelhead supplementation in the Hamma Hamma River. This has been the only project in Washington State to harvest wild steelhead eggs, then rear and release steelhead as either adults or two-year-old smolts, and monitor their migration patterns through the use of acoustic tags.
The project has proven to be both a significant recovery effort and a way to determine which of the two release strategies is more successful in bringing back fit adult fish to the spawning grounds. At the project’s start, an estimated 18 adult steelhead were returning to the Hamma Hamma River. Eight years later, the river is consistently showing returns of 100 or more spawners annually.
Expanding the Scope From one River to an Entire Basin
While the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project has been effective in helping to restore one threatened population, several recent events have reinforced the need for advanced understanding of the effects of salmon and steelhead supplementation on a larger scale, and played a role in launching the basin-wide Hood Canal Steelhead Project.
- Puget Sound steelhead, including steelhead in Hood Canal, were listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 2007.
- The Northwest Fisheries Science Center's Recovery Science Review Panel strongly advocated that NOAA Fisheries take the lead in initiating such a large-scale hatchery experiment that incorporates supplemented and control streams (RSRP Report, 21-23 July 2003).
- The Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG) has called for a wholesale revision of the ways that the State uses hatcheries in its management of steelhead statewide.
- WDFW has adopted a new Steelhead Management Plan & policy for Washington State.
- The Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council's Independent Science Advisory Board questioned whether conservation hatchery programs have aided in the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead populations. Existing programs cannot discount extraneous influences (e.g. harvest bans, habitat improvements) and do not have the history of post-supplementation monitoring necessary to conclude that the conservation hatchery programs have maintained or increased the abundance, productivity, diversity, and spatial structure of wild salmon and steelhead populations. These scientists concluded that a region-wide experiment involving multiple supplementation and non-supplemented control streams was required.
