7/18/2022 6:50 a.m.
Staff with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Coquille Tribe are proposing a hatchery conservation program for Coquille River fall Chinook salmon.
An ODFW release said the public can learn about the proposal during an online, livestreamed webinar on Wednesday July 20th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The webinar includes a question and answer session where the agency will answer questions and take public comment.
The release said ODFW and the Tribe will ask the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to authorize the program at their August 5th meeting.
The wild Coquille fall Chinook salmon population declined dramatically beginning in 2018. It remains highly depressed with a low of 275 adults returning to spawn to a high of about 900 from 2018 to 2021.
Previously, wild adult returns averaged about 8,000 to 10,000 fish yearly.
ODFW said with the extremely low number of wild fall Chinook adults returning to spawn since 2018, the ability of the population to sustain itself is at risk and these numbers could be extirpated. The conservation hatchery program is an emergency measure to prevent extinction of the population while limiting factors are addressed.
The release said the conservation hatchery program calls for about 15 pairs of wild adult Chinook collected for brood stock this year. Due to currently limited hatchery capacity, the target is to release 47,000 larger sized smolts into the upper Coquille basin during high flowers of winter/spring 2023-24. The fish will be reared at the Bandon River and Elk River hatcheries.
The objective is to scale releases up to 75,000 100,000 in future years.
To view the draft plan, go to: https://dfw.state.or.us/fish/CRP/docs/coquille_fall_chinook/DRAFT_Coquille_Fall_Chinook_Conservation_Hatchery_Program.pdf
To join the meeting, go to: https://www.youtube.com/user/IEODFW