Aquaculture America 2020

February 9 - 12, 2020

Honolulu, Hawaii

STATUS AND SUCCESS OF CONSERVATION AQUACULTURE USED TO RESTORE KOOTENAI RIVER BURBOT

Nathan R. Jensen* and Shawn P. Young
 
Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, 242 Hatchery Road, Bonners Ferry, ID, njensen@kootenai.org
 

Burbot  Lota lota maculosa were once abundant in the Kootenai/ay River Basin; Idaho USA and British Columbia Canada, where they provided important  cultural, recreational, and commercial fisheries. Beginning in the 1970's, cumulative effects of habitat loss  and  hydro-power operations lead to  an extirpation of Burbot populations.  A multi-agency cooperative program lead by the  Kootenai Tribe of Idaho  (KTOI),  the  University of Idaho Aquaculture Research Institute (UIARI) , the British Columbia Ministry (BCM) and Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) has resulted in  development of a program to conserve, restore  and monitor  a native strain of Burbot now being used to rebuild and restore populations on a basin-wide scale. From 2009 to present, the program transitioned from  UIARI laboratory-scale production to larger-scale production at a new KTOI Tribal fish hatchery . The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho Native Fish Conservation Aquaculture Program  now operates the hatchery to support Kootenai River Burbot conservation aquaculture and IDFG and BCM complement the program by means of in-river post-re lease monitoring and evaluation. A nnual  hatchery  juvenile Burbot releases have been variable (ranging 40,000 - 750,000 beginning in 2015) ; however,  a  long-term  pre-determined restoratio n goal of 17,500 spawning adults has been achieved. The new facility was designed to an nually produce 125,000 6-month old juvenile Burbot averaging 100 mm total length and 5 - 10 g body weight. With the production target and restoration goal in mind, the program has currently rejuvenated the population beyond 17,500 spawning adults. Current population estimates of adult Burbot in the basin exceed 50,000.  Based on this success, the program  is now also supporting experimental releases of early life stages (e.g., eggs, larvae) into river, floodplain, side-channel, and lake habitats to further evaluate habitat constraints that remain. The information gained from these early life studies through collaboration with IDFG and BCM monitoring programs may help  guide  future habitat restorat ion in the b asin. The  overarching goal of the program is to restore  self-sustaining, naturally recruiting population s for cultural and recreational use. In general, this presentation will highlight the progression of conservation aquaculture method developments  and program research support to understand recruitment bottlenecks .