South Fork Nooksack Chinook Population Recovery Program: Development of a Hatchery Brood Stock

The South Fork Nooksack Chinook Recovery Program is essential for genetic preservation and supplementation of the South Fork Chinook population while habitat limiting factors are addressed. The South Fork Nooksack Chinook must be on a recovery trajectory before delisting can occur for the Threatened Puget Sound Chinook ESU.

 Initial attempts to secure a brood stock for the program with weir and nets failed due to low adult abundance. A multi-agency team was assembled to improve the genetic baseline information and develop and implement a brood stock collection strategy.  We collected juveniles, assigned each juvenile to the appropriate stock at the Skookum Creek Hatchery, and transferred South Fork Chinook juveniles to the Kendall Creek Hatchery to start a captive brood. Half of sub-yearlings or yearlings were transferred to Manchester Lab for rearing to maturity in sea water with the remainder reared to maturity in fresh water at Kendall Creek.

 From 2007 through 2011, 12,200 juvenile Chinook were collected in the South Fork and processed for stock identification. We identified 3,315 South Fork Chinook to form the captive brood. Catch information identified by major river area and weekly time step provided a wealth of information on the South Fork Chinook stocks.