The latest Northwest Treaty Tribes magazine features a story about how the Nisqually Tribe is looking at the genetics of out-migrating juvenile chinook to find out how many adult chinook have spawned in recent years.
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From the magazine:
From 2012 to 2014, the tribe operated an adult salmon trap to sample chinook returning to the Nisqually River. In addition, the tribe has been working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife since 2013 to take genetic samples from out-migrating juveniles at a smolt trap.
A smolt trap is a safe and effectivedevice to catch and count a portion of out-migrating salmon.
“We have a good idea of the genetic makeup of the adult run and we have a random sample of the out-migrating smolts they produced,” said David Troutt, the tribe’s natural resources director.
