Salmon Enhancement

The Salmon Enhancement Program collects, analyzes and evaluates vital information and data for the Tribes’ hatchery program and the status of Tribally-important salmon, steelhead and their habitats and provides technical and policy advice to Tribal Managers and other Federal, State and Tribal policymakers, managers, and technical staff to ensure compatibility with Tribal goals and Treaty Rights. The Program prepares and submits dozens of grant proposals and implements and manages several dozen active hatchery capital improvement, research, and monitoring projects annually, including management of a multi-million-dollar budget. The Program designs salmon hatchery enhancement and monitoring programs and has a lead role in the development, implementation, evaluation, permitting and mandatory reporting for eight hatchery programs operated by Tribal and State Co-Managers in the Snohomish region as required under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The Program works closely with the Tribes’ Fisheries Management Program to oversee the Tulalip Stock Assessment Laboratory (TSAL) and the Tribes’ Stock Assessment Program to develop, oversee, and evaluate extensive Research and Monitoring activities that we conduct for the Tribes’ Hatchery and Fisheries Management programs. This includes monitoring growth, health and performance of juvenile salmon while they are reared in the hatcheries and overseeing physical and biological sampling programs in the field and laboratory for juvenile and adult salmon after hatchery program fish are released to evaluate the potential for genetic and ecological interactions between hatchery- and natural-origin salmon and steelhead listed as Threatened under the ESA. The Program collects and analyzes thousands of biological samples annually from juvenile salmon in the Snohomish estuary and in nearshore and offshore marine habitats in Puget Sound after fish are released from regional hatcheries under ongoing projects such as the Puget Sound Juvenile Salmon and Herring Monitoring Project and the Puget Sound Zooplankton Monitoring Project to examine how changing ocean conditions are affecting prey availability and the diets, growth and survival of the different species of salmon.