Chinook and coho salmon coded wire tagging studies in the Kenai River and Deep Creek, Alaska, 1997
By: by Bruce E. King and Jeffery A. Breakfield.
Contributors: Breakfield, Jeffery A.; Alaska. Division of Sport Fish.
Series: Fishery data series -- no. 99-11.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Research and Technical Services
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 61
Subjects: Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Kenai River -- Statistics.; Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Deep Creek -- Statistics.; Coho salmon -- Alaska -- Kenai River -- Statistics.; Coho salmon -- Alaska -- Deep Creek -- Statistics.; Fish tagging -- Alaska -- Kenai River -- Statistics.; Fish tagging -- Alaska -- Deep Creek -- Statistics.; Fishery resources -- Alaska -- Kenai River.; Fishery resources -- Alaska -- Deep Creek.
Description: The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish is currently assessing the harvest of selected wild stocks of chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha by the mixed-stock marine recreational fishery in Cook Inlet. Chinook salmon from the Kenai River and chinook and coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch from Deep Creek were selected for a coded wire tag marking and recovery program. A combination of rotary and inclined plane smolt traps captured 35,357 chinook salmon smolt in the Kenai River and the Killey River, a tributary of the Kenai River, during 1997. We marked and released 31,928 smolt, or 22% of the tagging goal. Chinook salmon smolt were present in the Kenai River throughout the summer with peak catches in late June and late July. Using one rotary screw trap, we also marked and released 7,419 chinook salmon and 6,948 coho salmon smolt at Deep Creek in 1997. The number of chinook salmon smolt marked was 27% of our goal. One-third of the chinook salmon smolt marked were age-0.0. We estimated (the proportion of chinook salmon marked with coded wire tags in previous years) by examining adults in the escapements. We did not estimate for Kenai River chinook salmon marked as fry in 1993 and 1994 because we found only one tagged adult in the approximately 1,500 chinook salmon examined. Examination of chinook salmon adults from Deep Creek for adipose finclips revealed that 2.95% (SE = 0.73%) of the fish passing a weir at rkm 4.0 were strays from hatchery releases in the adjacent Ninilchik River. Marked chinook salmon of Deep Creek origin comprised 8.11% (SE = 0.82%) of the 1992 brood year age-1.3 and 15.28% (SE = 3.78%) of the 1993 brood year age-1.2 escapement. We also captured adult coho salmon in Deep Creek and found that 12.54% (SE = 0.74%) were tagged as smolt in 1996. The proportion of marked adults () did not change over time, and the marked proportion was used to estimate that 38,683 (SE = 2,205) coho salmon smolt emigrated from Deep Creek in 1996. The preliminary marine survival estimate for this cohort, excluding harvest in marine fisheries, was 8.42% (SE = 5.70%).
Notes: "July 1999."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).

Also issued online.