Project Grant R25AP00618

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded $1.45M to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) on September 19, 2025, under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Title XXXIV (CFDA 15.512) to conduct a mark-and-recapture program through September 30, 2030. The project delivers five core task areas: project management and administration; coded wire tagging of juvenile Chinook salmon; ocean harvest sampling of tagged fish across recreational and commercial fisheries from Crescent City to Avila Beach; laboratory processing of coded wire tags; and age determination analysis. These activities generate critical fisheries management data to distinguish naturally produced versus hatchery-origin fall-run Chinook salmon in the Central Valley, with specific focus on Coleman and Nimbus Hatchery contributions.

The program's primary deliverable is population proportion estimates and monitoring data that enable five key objectives: evaluating hatchery and naturally produced fish contribution rates to Central Valley populations and ocean fisheries; assessing genetic and ecological hatchery impacts; evaluating natural production restoration actions; estimating ocean and inland fishery exploitation rates; and measuring straying impacts. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife serves as the primary sub-awardee, providing environmental scientist oversight and fishery technician resources for ocean sampling and coastal port monitoring. These outputs directly support more effective water operations management, habitat restoration design, fishing regulation development, and hatchery operations optimization across California's Central Valley fisheries system.