Hatchery Steelhead Escapements: Am I missing something?

[Speedbird 48]

Tokul Creek, Reiter Ponds, and Wallace River Hatchery are the three main producers of Steelhead in the Puget Sound. And from what I am seeing: All three have seen double digit returns of fish. Am I grossly misinterpreting the escapement reports? It actually looks like we may have even fewer Puget Sound Steelhead than last year

[Jakefish]

The numbers are low, but they are about double this time last year:

----------------- 2020 - 2021
Kendall Creek: - 12 - 47
Whitehorse: ---- 18 - 35
Tokul Cr.: ------- 41 - 28
Wallace: -------- 4 -- 36
Reiter: ---------- 20 - 49


The only decline I see is Tokul Creek hatchery, which went down by about 30%. Overall it looks like a big improvement over last year, but still low numbers. Ocean survival has been poor for pretty much all steelhead runs this year.

[BentRod]

The only thing you're missing is data from the previous 10+ years. Granted, yes, logically one would think that the returns this year should be better than last, but overall they're all still quite dismal compared to what used to be normal and highlights that there is a serious issue in the pipeline somewhere. There should be 400-500 or more fish back at each hatchery by now by historic standards. I've got the Tokul data somewhere. Will have to dig it out.

[Jakefish]

The only thing you're missing is data from the previous 10+ years. Granted, yes, logically one would think that the returns this year should be better than last, but overall they're all still quite dismal compared to what used to be normal and highlights that there is a serious issue in the pipeline somewhere. There should be 400-500 or more fish back at each hatchery by now by historic standards. I've got the Tokul data somewhere. Will have to dig it out.

The annual escapement is here for the past 20 years:

Code: Select all

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/hatcheries/escapement#annual-reports

When did the release numbers get cut as a result of the lawsuit?

[BentRod]

Historic Tokul hatchery steelhead escarpment numbers:

1/19/2011 - 677 (no report for 1/12/2011)
1/11/2012 - 636
1/9/2013 - 500
1/14/2014 - 354
1/14/2015 - 474
1/12/2016 - 161
1/9/2017 - 22
1/9/2018 - 318
1/9/2019 - 41
1/8/2020- 41
1/6/21 - 28

[Jakefish]

Looking at the hatchery releases, 2017 returns were to be expected because there were no smolts released from Tokul in 2015. After that, releases are at or under 75k per year, which I believe is a substantial reduction from prior to the lawsuit that cut back all steelhead releases except on the Sky (and completely eliminated releases on the Skagit system).