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.

A: Over the ten years of the KOR 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 for KOR. 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 KOR 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.

A. While there are many prizes for participants, and it is always fun to fish for big fish, many people recognize the contribution to conservation that KOR makes and support this work. There are many area groups, including high school students, that volunteer to work the derby for the same reason. In the first ten years of KOR, 1,841 volunteers assisted with the Project collecting 6,780 adult fall Chinook. The comradery and friendly competition coupled with the connection to improving fish conservation make this a great event.

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