Kokanee Stocking and Monitoring, Flathead Lake, 1993-1994 Annual Report.

Abstract

One mitigation goal of the Hungry Horse Dam fisheries mitigation program, funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, is to replace lost production of 100,000 adult kokanee in Flathead Lake. The mitigation program calls for a five-year test to determine if kokanee can be reestablished in Flathead Lake. The test consists. of annual stocking of one million hatchery-raised yearling kokanee. There are three benchmarks for judging the success of the kokanee reintroduction effort: (1) Post-stocking survival of 30 percent of planted kokanee one year after stocking; (2) Yearling to adult survival of 10 percent (100,000 adult salmon); (3) Annual kokanee harvest of 50,000 or more fish per year by 1998, with an average length of 11 inches or longer for harvested fish, and fishing pressure of 100,000 angler hours or more. Kokanee were the primary sport fish species in the Flathead Lake fishery in the early 1900s, and up until the late 1980s when the population rapidly declined in numbers and then disappeared. Factors identified which influenced the decline of kokanee are the introduction of opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta), hydroelectric operations, overharvest through angling, and competition and/or predation by lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and lake whitefish (Coregonur clupeaformis). The purpose ofmore » this report was to summarize the stocking program and present monitoring results from the 1993 and 1994 field seasons. In June 1993, roughly 210,000 yearling kokanee were stocked into two bays on the east shore of Flathead Lake. Following stocking, we observed a high incidence of stocked kokanee in stomach samples from lake trout captured in areas adjacent to the stocking sites and a high percentage of captured lake trout containing kokanee. Subsequent monitoring concluded that excessive lake trout predation precluded significant survival of kokanee stocked in 1993. In June 1994, over 802,000 kokanee were stocked into Big Arm Bay. The combination of near optimum water temperatures, an upsurge in the abundance of Duphniu rhorum, and saturation planting in an area believed to have lower lake trout densities was expected to maximize short-term survival of stocked kokanee. A net-pen experiment demonstrated that yearling hatchery kokanee, in the absence of predation, adjusted to conditions in Flathead Lake and utilized available zooplankton during June and July without substantial poststocking mortality. Kokanee captured after several months in the lake exhibited good growth and condition. We concluded that the food supply in Big Arm Bay was not limiting survival of stocked kokanee. The 1994 monitoring objective was to quantify lake trout predation of kokanee in Big Arm Bay in the first eight weeks following stocking. There were three components needed to quantify predation; estimated number of lake trout in Big Arm Bay, average number of kokanee consumed by lake trout, and estimated time required for lake trout to digest kokanee. As in the previous year, the monitoring results from the 1994 kokanee plant demonstrated that lake trout predation is the primary factor reducing survival of stocked kokanee. We estimated that lake trout consumed a minimum of 232,000 kokanee in Big Arm Bay during the first eight weeks following stocking. This represents 29 percent of kokanee planted. The consumption estimate was based on a hydroacoustic estimate for lake trout abundance (7,850 fish over 300 mm in total length), an incidence of kokanee per lake trout stomach sample which ranged from 2.99 to 0.22 fish, and a gastric evacuation rate of 47 hours for lake trout to digest consumed kokanee. Due to hydroacoustic limitations in identifying bottom-oriented lake trout, we underestimated the true abundance of lake trout, which led to an underestimate of kokanee mortality. By fall of 1994, we estimated that an additional 12.7 percent of surviving kokanee matured, based on observations of similar-sized fish in the hatchery. Thus, up to 72,000 additional fish were removed from the population due to early maturation. Adding the loss due to predation in the first eight weeks (232,000) to the loss due to early maturation (72,000), we accounted for mortality of at least 304,000 (38 percent) of the original 802,000 fish planted. These estimates did not account for additional losses, including predation outside Big Arm Bay, predation in the months following July, and predation from species other than lake trout, such as bull trout and northern squawfish. We documented lake trout predation of kokanee from June through October, and predation by fish species other than lake trout. One of the program goals is to achieve post-stocking survival of 30 percent one year after planting. Based on observations of the 1994 program, it is unlikely we will achieve this level of survival from the 1994 plant.« less