Project Information

Title: SEA: PWSAC-Experimental Fry Release 94320-K

Project Year and Number: 1994: 94320-K

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 1997: 97320-K, 1996: 96320-K, 1995: 95320-K

Principal Investigator (PI): Jeff Olsen (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Managing Agency: ADFG

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Pink Salmon

Abstract: This project is a component of the Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) program, a multi-disciplinary effort to acquire an ecosystem level understanding of the marine and freshwater processes that interact to constrain levels of fish, marine bird, and marine mammal production in Prince William Sound (PWS). Pink salmon are thought to play an important role in the survival of other fishes, birds and mammals. The SEA program advocates that experimental releases of hatchery pink salmon juveniles will provide a powerful test of the influence of ocean-entry timing and of fry size at ocean entry on losses to predators. Previous studies suggest that fry size is an important determinant of survival during early marine residence. Currently the average live weight of fry at release is .25-.35 grams. To assess the influence of size at ocean entry on survival, this component of the SEA program will rear fry at the Wally Noerenberg hatchery (WNH) and Armin F. Koernig hatchery (AFK) in PWS to an average live weight of 1.5 grams, and release fry into PWS. The marine survivals of experimentally-released fry will be estimated the following year by recovering the coded-wire tags that were applied during rearing. The marine survivals of late released larger fry will be compared with the marine survivals of other smaller fry released at these same hatcheries.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Annual Report FY94: View (201 KB)
Final Report: Final Report Not available. For current status, please contact us.

Publications from this Project: None Available

Datasets:
EVOSTC Data Archive: Release numbers of salmon fry by location and coded wire tag ratio. Excel Spreadsheet Availability: Upon request.