CONTENTS Introduction Intensively Monitored Watersheds Smolt/Adult Monitoring Skagit River Lake Washington Green River Deschutes Hood Canal Dungeness Grays Harbor Lower Columbia River Wenatchee River Trapping Gear Publications Data Salmonscape

Smolt/Adult Monitoring: Grays Harbor [Chehalis River] [Bingham Creek] [Elk Creek] Grays Harbor: Chehalis River Location: Mainstem Chehalis River RM 52.0, by the mouth of Independence Creek, near Rochester in Thurston County, Washington. History: The Chehalis River enters the east side of Grays Harbor.  This river system comprises the largest watershed (5709 km2) accessible to anadromous fish, outside the Columbia River.  Wild coho smolts have been trapped and tagged at various tributaries throughout the system, including Bingham Creek, since 1980.  WDFW operated a scoop trap on the Chehalis River in 1976 and 1977.  Continuous operation resumed in 1986. Methods: WDFW has operated various types of trapping gear to capture a representative portion of the wild coho production emigrating from this basin.  Captured smolts are coded-wire tagged, and provide the basis for estimating production, marine survival, and harvest rates.  Adult salmon catches in terminal fisheries are sampled to estimate wild coho tag rates, and thereby, total smolt production and adult run size. Publications: Seiler, D. 1989. Differential survival of Grays Harbor basin anadromous salmonid: water quality implications, p. 123-135. In C.D. Levings, L.B. Holtby, and M.A. Henderson [ed.] Proceedings of the National Workshop on Effects of Habitat Alteration on Salmonid Stocks. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 105 This report presents a brief summary of Grays Harbor’s historical water quality and fish survival problems, documents and quantifies the survival problem of Chehalis Basin stocks, and demonstrates the productive capacity of the watershed.  Grays Harbor: Bingham Creek Location: Upstream from the Bingham Creek Hatchery at RM 0.8 on Bingham Creek, near Elma, in Grays Harbor County, Washington; right bank tributary to the East Fork Satsop River at RM 17.4. History: Bingham Creek is the only major tributary to the East Fork Satsop River, in the Chehalis River Basin.  This low-gradient stream provides excellent salmon habitat for spawning and rearing naturally-produced fish.  The long-term monitoring station is part of a State-funded project to improve wild salmon management.  Located near the Bingham Creek Hatchery, this site was selected because the low-head dam used for supplying water to the hatchery and already included a fishway and adult trap, which allowed complete adult trapping through all flows.  Adult enumeration began in 1980.  A downstream-migrant trapping facility employing a fan trap was constructed in 1981, and trap operation began in 1982. Methods: The hatchery water supply intake structure, five-step fish ladder, and adult trap are located on the east end of the barrier dam.  Concrete buttresses with stop-log guides form the spillway, and a splash apron on the downstream side prevents upstream migrants from jumping over the dam in all flows.  Adult fish returning to the Bingham Creek trap are enumerated and sampled.  As of 1998, only wild fish are allowed upstream to spawn.  The downstream-migrant trapping season runs from April through June.  Nine fan traps screen the water and guide downstream migrants into an aluminum flume, which transports the fish to a screened live-box lined with a fine-mesh net.  Flow is regulated through the fan traps by adjusting their elevation at the downstream end with chain hoists.  All downstream migrants are removed and enumerated at least once daily, and more frequently during peak migration or heavy debris loads.  Catches include wild coho smolts, cutthroat, and wild and hatchery steelhead.  Coho smolts are coded-wire tagged before release. Available Publications: 2002 Index Watershed Salmon Recovery Monitoring Report Grays Harbor: Elk Creek Location: River mile 1.5 on Elk Creek (tributary to Chehalis River at R.M. 100.2), near Doty in Lewis County. History: We sample the Chehalis Tribe’s lower Chehalis River net fishery at Oakville to recover coded-wire tags and collect scales from adult coho.  These data were used to estimate stock composition of the total coho return to Oakville and wild coho escapement to the upper Chehalis Basin.  On years when this fishery does not occur, our primary source of escapement data for the upper Chehalis Basin has come from trapping at Elk Creek.   The fishway was constructed in 1972 to enable anadromous fish passage above the 12-foot barrier falls.  The installation opened up an additional 26-miles of spawning and rearing habitat (Johnson & Powers 1985).  The fish ladder consists a two-stage Denil fishway, with a two-chamber resting pool.  WDFW made hydraulic and fish-passage improvements on the fishway in Fall 1984, and installed an upstream-migrant trap at the upstream exit of the fishway.  Additional improvements were made in 2001. Methods: We operate the trap from late-September through the end of December, over the adult coho return.  The trap is checked at regular intervals, and all returning fish are removed one at a time, enumerated by species and sex, and sampled for coded-wire tags.  Origin (wild or hatchery) is determined by tags and scale sampling, and a sub-sample measured for size analysis.  After sampling, fish are released upstream to spawn naturally.