September 20, 2021, by Alex McCarrel

It’s another amazing field season in the books for the Hatchery Wild Salmon Interactions Project. Over six weeks, 12 dedicated field technicians surveyed three streams throughout Southeastern Alaska, experiencing below average chum (Téel’) returns, strong pink salmon returns, and wild wet weather. Crew members walked over 300 miles to collect DNA samples, scales, and otoliths (fish ear bones) from over 1,200 samples. Data was collected from 980 chum carcasses and 259 alive chum, a first for the project!

Crews experienced stormy weather during projected peak chum returns, with over five inches of rain falling over a 48-hour period around Juneau! The number of samples this year compared to previous years were below average, though significantly better compared to the number of samples collected in 2020. Region-wide the chum run was poor for the 2021 season, so the low number of samples may still represent a good proportion of the chum runs. Samples were shipped to laboratories in Anchorage and Juneau for processing, with results so far suggesting the majority of chum in our three streams in SE Alaska originate from hatcheries. Despite the poor chum returns and weather obstacles, crucial data was collected to determine the origins of spawning salmon, which is critical information used to help ensure that we can enjoy salmon for many years to come.