Coded wire tagging of coho and chinook salmon in the Kenai River and Deep Creek, Alaska, 1996
By: by Bruce E. King and Jeffery A. Breakfield.
Contributors: Breakfield, Jeffery A.; Alaska. Division of Sport Fish.
Series: Fishery data series -- no. 98-9.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Research and Technical Services
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 37
Subjects: Coho salmon -- Alaska -- Deep Creek -- Statistics.; Fish tagging -- Alaska -- Kenai River -- Statistics.; Coho salmon -- Alaska -- Kenai River.; Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Kenai River.; Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Deep Creek.; 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 an expanding mixed-stock marine sport fishery in Cook Inlet. Chinook salmon stocks in the Kenai River and Deep Creek are being assessed using a coded wire tag marking and recovery program. Two rotary smolt traps were used to capture 7,018 chinook salmon smolt in the Kenai River delta during 1996. A total of 6,538 smolt, or 6% of the tagging goal, was marked and released. Chinook salmon smolt were present in the Kenai River delta throughout the summer with peak catches in June. We also marked and released 8,966 chinook salmon and 4,868 coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch smolt in Deep Creek in 1996. The number of chinook salmon smolt marked using one rotary screw trap was 24% of our goal. Chinook salmon smolt were present in lower Deep Creek throughout the summer with peak numbers emigrating between mid-June and mid-July. Two age-classes of smolt (age 0 and 1) were present in Deep Creek catches. We estimated the proportion of chinook salmon marked with coded wire tags in previous years by examining adult fish in the inriver escapements. We could not estimate the proportion of Kenai River chinook salmon marked as fry in 1993 because we found no tagged adults in the approximately 1,800 chinook salmon examined. Examination of chinook salmon adults from Deep Creek for adipose fin clips revealed that 14.1% (SE=3.5%) of the fish present in the lower river during sampling were strays from hatchery releases in the adjacent Ninilchik River, and 7.2% (SE=2.0%) were marked in 1994 in Deep Creek. In 1996, we also captured adult coho salmon in Deep Creek and found that 27.8% (SE = 3.1%) were tagged as smolt in 1995. The proportion of marked adults captured did not change over time, and the marked proportion was used to estimate that 34,351 (SE = 3,779) coho salmon smolt emigrated from Deep Creek in 1995.
Notes: June 1998.

Bibliography: p. 28.

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