2024 ANGLER BROODSTOCK COLLECTION EVENT

It’s that time of year again! Our CCA Tri-Cities Chapter is hosting another Angler Broodstock Collection (ABC) event on October 25-26, 2024. Anglers participating in this year’s event must register . All participants MUST be a current member of CCA with a membership valid through 12/31/24.

Our CCA Tri-Cities Chapter has been spearheading the ABC program since 2012. For the past 12 years the project has been operated as a derby called the King of the Reach. For this year, we are pausing the derby activity while working through safety policy changes with our partner agencies (Grant County PUD and WDFW). Essentially, the program is unchanged other than the derby prizes and scorekeeping – volunteer anglers will still fish at Vernita Bridge and White Bluffs in the Hanford Reach and collect wild chinook broodstock for the hatchery.

 For additional details, and to register for this great event, please visit .

FAQs

 

While most people recognize the contribution this event makes to fish conservation, some question the effectiveness of this project and the impact it could have on native fish populations. Here are some questions WDFW is often asked regarding the event:

Q. What happens to fish caught in this event?

A. The fish caught are handed over to WDFW to be used as broodstock at the Priest Rapids Hatchery to create more fish. No fish are retained for personal consumption by anglers participating in the event.

Priest Rapids produces and releases 7.3 million juvenile fall Chinook salmon into the Columbia River each June on the Hanford Reach. They are not sent to other areas of the Columbia or state for release. These fish contribute significantly to a variety of fisheries from the oceans of Alaska to the Tri-cities.

Q. Why is it important to catch fish from the Hanford Reach and use them for reproduction? Why can’t fish from anywhere be used? And why do they need to be native, not hatchery-origin, fish?

A: Offspring of natural-origin (wild) fish are more genetically adapted to survive in their natural environment. Ideally 30% of hatchery broodstock should come from natural origin fall Chinook, and preferably from URB from the Hanford Reach, to keep native genetics in the gene pool.

The Priest Rapids Hatchery has a fish “trap” that spawning fish enter. Less than 10% of the fall Chinook that end up in the trap are natural origin, and many are from other parts of the Columbia River, making additional efforts to secure natural origin fish a necessity.

Q. Will this program replace natural populations with hatchery fish? Will natural origin fish eventually be wiped out by this operation?

A: Over the ten years of the program (numbers are broken out by year below), less than 1% (0.6%) of the Hanford Reach natural origin fall chinook population has been collected. In comparison, an average of 12% of the natural origin fall Chinook are harvested each year by sport anglers on the Hanford Reach. The relatively small number collected during this event makes a large impact in the genetic makeup of the fish released from the Priest Rapids Hatchery.

The American Fisheries Society recently published a peer reviewed manuscript on this topic.

Q. Why do people fish this event if they can’t keep these large fish?

A. For starters, it is always fun to catch big fish. Moreover, many people recognize the contribution to conservation that this event makes and they support this work. There are many area groups, including high school students, that volunteer to work this event for the same reason. In the first ten years of the event, 1,841 volunteers assisted with the project collecting 6,780 adult fall Chinook. The comradery and connection to improving fish conservation make this a great event.

Q. What is the mortality rate of Chinook at this event?

A. Each year, only a handful of fish die in the time between being caught and loaded into the hatchery truck.