Snake River Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus Nerka) Habitat/Limnologic Research

This report outlines long-term planning and monitoring activities that occurred in 1991 and 1992 in the Stanley Basin Lakes of the upper Salmon River, Idaho for the purpose of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) recovery. Limnological monitoring and experimental sampling protocol, designed to establish a limnological baseline and to evaluate sockeye salmon production capability of the lakes, are present:ed. Also presented are recommended passage improvements for current fish passage barriers/impediments on migratory routes to the lakes. We initiated O. Nerka population evaluations for Redfish and Alturas lakes; this included population estimates of emerging kokanee fry entering each lake in the spring and adult kokanee spawning surveys in tributary streams during the fall. Gill net evaluations of Alturas, Pettit, and Stanley lakes were done in September, 1992 to assess the relative abundance of fish species among the Stanley Basin lakes. Fish population data ~ill be used to predict sockeye salmon production potential within a lake, as well as a baseline to monitor long-term fish community changes as a result of sockeye salmon recovery activities. Also included is a paper that reviews sockeye salmon enhancement activities in British Columbia and Alaska and recommends strategies for the release of age-O sockeye salmon that will be produced from the current captive broodstock