Using telemetry to identify causes of low steelhead smolt survivial

through Puget Sound

Megan Moore

Barry Berejikian

Manchester Laboratory, NOAA Fisheries

NWFSC

2

Problem = marine survival in Puget Sound

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Skagit

Green

Puyallup

Nisqually

Queets

Quinault

Hoh

Quillayute

Mar

ine

surv

ival

Puget Sound populations Washington Coast populations

Puget Sound steelhead listed as threatened in 2007

Previous Puget Sound Telemetry Studies

Hood Canal Rivers: 2006-2010

Moore, Berejikian, et al. (NWFSC)

Green River: 2006-2009

Fred Goetz, Tom Quinn et al (UW, ACOE)

Puyallup River: 2006, 2008-2009

Andrew Berger et al. (Puyallup Tribe)

Nisqually River: 2006-2009

Sayre Hodgson et al. (Nisqually Tribe)

Skagit River: 2006-2009

Ed Conner et al. (Seattle City Light)

Nisqually (W

)

Puyallup (W

)

Puyallup (H

)

Green (W)

Green (H)

Skagit (

W)

Skagit (

H)

Surv

ival P

robabili

ty (

%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Skoko

mish (W)

Skoko

mish (H)

Dewatto (W

)

Hamma (H)

Duckabush (H

)

Big Beef C

reek (W

)0

20

40

60

80

100

Surv

ival P

robabili

ty (

%)

A

B

Puget Sound

Hood Canal

• Low marine

survival rates

• Hatchery fish

generally had

lower survival

• Smolts with

longer migrations

fared worse

river

marine

Moore et al. 2015

10/24/2016 5

2014 Telemetry efforts began with the following objectives:

• Separate freshwater effects (habitat conditions and hatchery influence)

from marine effects on marine survival

• Identify areas of low survival (‘hot spots’)

• Investigate effects of body size and outmigration timing

Salish Sea Marine Survival Project

Treatment vs. control

Green River Watershed Nisqually River Watershed

• Lower watershed 75% industrial/residential • Lower watershed 5% industrial/residential

• Degraded riparian zone (lower river 95%

armored)

• Healthy riparian zone

• 2% of historic estuary/mudflats remains • Largest undeveloped delta in Puget Sound

• Steelhead hatchery since 1964 • No steelhead released since 1994

Green River Watershed Nisqually River Watershed

Commercial/residential Federal conservation land State trust forest land

Undeveloped State conservation land Agricultural use

Reciprocal Transplant Experiment

Smolts collected at Nisqually R. and Green R. smolt traps

Surgically implanted with Vemco V7 acoustic transmitters

Held overnight in flow-through tanks at trap/tagging location

Released at RKM 19 the following morning at either home or away location

GREEN POPULATION NISQUALLY POPULATION

Away Home Away Home TOTAL

50 53 50 50 203

Photos by Matt Klungle

Survival Analysis mark-recapture (Program MARK)

Nisqually River

Green River

RELEASE

NAR

CPS

ADM

JDF

RELEASE

Survival Analysis - results

PR-R

M

RM

-CPS/N

AR

NAR-C

PS

CPS-A

DM

ADM

-JDF

Gre

en R

RM

-JDF

Nisqu

ally

R R

M-J

DF

Surv

iva

l Pro

ba

bili

ty (

%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Green and Nisqually

Green River only

Nisqually River only

Overall RM-JDF

survival rates

Extra

segment

17%

6%

Steelhead smolt travel time

CPS

NAR

ADMJDF

11

Predator-prey interactionsIdentifying potentially important predators on steelhead smolts

Criteria:

1. Spatial and temporal overlap

2. Known to eat steelhead

3. Known to eat similarly sized salmon or other fish

4. Increasing or stable abundance

Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina)

Jeffries et al. 2003

Seal tagging

12 Instrument packs deployed

4/3/2014 – 4/28/2014

11 Instrument packs recovered

July - September

N = 7

N= 5

Objectives

• Quantify “encounters” between steelhead smolts

and harbor seals (i.e., tags detected on seal-mounted

receivers)

• River-of-origin

• Timing of interactions

• Locations

• Investigate evidence for predation:

• Direct evidence = recurring continuous pings on seal-

mounted receivers

• Indirect evidence = stationary tags associated with

seal locations

Number of steelhead detected by harbor seals

Nisqually River release Green River release

Seal tagging

location

Nisqually

population

(n = 93)

Green

population

(n = 50)

Nisqually

population

(n = 50)

Green

population

(n = 53) Total

Central

Puget Sound

(n = 4) 16 13 5 3 37

Admiralty

Inlet (n = 7) 2 0 3 2 7

• An estimated 225 tagged steelhead entered Puget Sound

• A total of 44 steelhead tags were detected by 11 seal-mounted hydrophones

Fate Number

recorded

Haulout 9

Survivor 14

Stationary non-haulout 6

Unknown location 15

TOTAL encounters 44

Orca network sightings - 2015

January 2015December 2014

(Relevant) ORCA FACTS

• Resident Orcas eat

salmon

• Transient Orcas eat

marine mammals

• Transient orcas rarely

come into Puget Sound

• 2015 anomalous behavior

brought them into the

sound for 3 months in the

winter and 3 months in the

spring

Sep-2014 Nov-2014 Jan-2015 Mar-2015 May-2015 Jul-2015 Sep-2015

Da

ys w

ith

Orc

a s

igh

tin

gs in

So

uth

Pu

ge

t S

ou

nd

0

5

10

15

20

25

2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Ste

elh

ea

d e

arly m

arin

e s

urv

iva

l (R

M-J

DF

)

0

5

10

15

20

25

Nu

mb

er

of

da

ys w

ith

tra

nsie

nt

Orc

a s

igh

tin

gs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

17

smolt

migration

window

no survival estimates

Tough Questions/Management Implications

• First of all, we have to get a handle on the actual predation rate of

harbor seals on steelhead

- seal and steelhead tagging in 2016

- mobile tracking

- scat analysis

• If predation rate is substantial (what is substantial?) what actions can

we take? Both species are protected:

- steelhead (“threatened” under Endangered Species Act)

- harbor seals (protected under Marine Mammal Protection Act)

• What role do healthy (resident and transient) Orca populations play?

• What role does Nanophyetus salmincola play?

Acknowledgements

Steelhead Advisory Group to the SSMSP

LLTK: Michael Schmidt, Iris Kemp

WDFW: Steve Jeffries, Josh Oliver, Dyanna Lambourn, Joe Anderson, Pete Topping, Matt Klungle, Chris Frazier,

Bob Green, Matt Pollack, Devin West, Justin Miller, & Lars Swartling

Nisqually Tribe: Chris Ellings, Sayre Hodgson, Jed Moore, Walker Duvall, Tom Friedrich

Muckleshoot Tribe: Ava Fuller, Eric Warner, Sean Hildebrandt

Squaxin Tribe: Scott Steltzner

NWFSC: Anna Kagley, Heather Jackson, Rob Endicott, Jose Reyes- Tomassini, Jeff Atkins

Port of Seattle: George Blomberg, Mick Schultz

UW: Tom Quinn, Fred Goetz FUNDING: WDFW and NOAA NWFSC

20

2015 mobile tracking