Approaches Considered in Developing the South Fork Nooksack Spring Chinook Salmon Stock Rebuilding Program

With the multiagency interest in recovering the South Fork Spring Chinook Salmon stock a plan needed to be developed to rebuild the population.  The first step in this process was for the cooperating agencies to share their experience on using captive broodstock technology for stock restoration.  Programs reviewed included the captive broodstock operations for White (Puget Sound), Dungeness, Salmon, and Grande Ronde River Spring Chinook Salmon, as well as Snake River Sockeye salmon.  After considering the strengths and weaknesses of these earlier approaches, it was determined the South Fork Spring Chinook program was most likely to succeed by harnessing a captive broodstock program with a conventional smolt production program.  It was agreed this would be the quickest method of amplifying the population and thereby reducing the probability of the population winking out before the stock could be rebuilt.  The details of the ongoing program provide the body of this symposium.