Tucannon Spring Chinook
The Tucannon River hatchery spring Chinook brood stock were developed from natural Chinook salmon that returned to the Tucannon River in the early 1980s. Since then, a goal of 50% of adults collected for use at the hatchery is naturally produced Tucannon spring Chinook. Natural Tucannon River spring Chinook experienced an extreme dip in population numbers beginning in the early 1990's (low of 54 adults in 1995) which lead WDFW to take wild fish into a captive brood hatchery program where fish spend their entire life in the hatchery environment and their progeny are released back to the river to help boost the number of spring Chinook available. As a result all hatchery fish in the Tucannon River are considered to be endemic whether naturally produced or hatchery produced. This data is based on fish counts collected at the hatchery weir and from spawning ground survey data collected each September. Chinook populations are relatively easy to estimate with confidence in their spawning stream due to the low water conditions in the fall and ability to find the adults when they die after spawning.
