The Hood Canal Steelhead Project applies propagation techniques that minimize human and hatchery influence. These techniques were pioneered by Long Live the Kings and NOAA Fisheries to supplement the Hamma Hamma River steelhead population from 1998-2008 (the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project). In traditional steelhead programs, adults are collected and spawned artificially and then their progeny are raised quickly so that they can be released as one-year old smolts. Hood Canal Steelhead Project staff wait to collect eggs from adults until after they spawn in the wild, allowing for natural selection. Eyed eggs are collected from naturally formed steelhead redds (nests). After the eggs hatch, the juvenile steelhead are reared in similar conditions to and at the same growth rate as what they would experience in the wild, resulting in releases of predominantly two-year-old smolts. Some steelhead are also reared and released as four- and five-year-old adults to provide immediate contribution to the naturally spawning populations.

Precedent for the Hood Canal Steelhead Project has been set in Hood Canal by the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project. On the Hamma Hamma River, the number of naturally spawning steelhead (wild-origin and hatchery-reared, wild fish) has increased from approximately 17 to over 100 annually. And in 2009, large schools of predominantly wild-origin steelhead were observed, a sign that the supplemented population is successfully producing an increased number of wild offspring that are returning to perpetuate the population.

While the Hamma Hamma Winter Steelhead Project, led by Dr. Barry Berejikian, with rearing and release activities centered at LLTK's Lilliwaup Hatchery, has been effective in helping to restore one threatened population, several recent events reinforce the need for advanced understanding of the effects of salmon and steelhead supplementation on a larger scale.

• The Northwest Power Planning and Conservation Council's Independent Science Advisory Board questioned whether conservation hatchery programs have aided in the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead populations. Existing programs cannot discount extraneous influences (e.g. harvest bans, habitat improvements) and do not have the history of post-supplementation monitoring necessary to conclude that the conservation hatchery programs have maintained or increased the abundance, productivity, diversity, and spatial structure of wild salmon and steelhead populations. These scientists concluded that a region-wide experiment involving multiple supplementation and non-supplemented control streams was required.
• The Northwest Fisheries Science Center's Recovery Science Review Panel strongly advocated that NOAA Fisheries take the lead in initiating such a large-scale hatchery experiment that incorporates supplemented and control streams (RSRP Report, 21-23 July 2003).
• The Hatchery Scientific Review Group (HSRG) has called for a wholesale revision of the ways that the State uses hatcheries in its management of steelhead statewide.
• WDFW has adopted a new Steelhead Management Plan & policy for Washington State.
• Puget Sound steelhead, including steelhead in Hood Canal, were listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 2007.

Under the direction of NOAA researcher, Dr. Barry Berejikian, the Hood Canal Steelhead Project represents a significant collaboration between NOAA Fisheries, Native American tribes, State and Federal agencies, community groups, and non-profits, and includes the participation of many watershed-level volunteers. Over 40 individuals from 10 collaborating organizations are involved in the project.

Participants from all partnering organizations, as well as community volunteers, take part in surveys, egg collection, monitoring, and other field activities. Fish rearing activities for the Dewatto and Duckabush rivers occur at LLTK's Lilliwaup Hatchery (with early rearing at the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Quilcene National Fish Hatchery). Rearing for the Skokomish River occurs at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's McKernan Hatchery.

Click here for a complete list of project activities

Long Live the Kings is involved in all aspects of the Hood Canal Steelhead Project. We:

• Provide project coordination, protocol and document management, communications, and general project support to the Principal Investigator, NOAA Fisheries Scientist, Barry Berejikian. This includes administering a project management web site for collaborator staff.
• Coordinate volunteer support of field work on the west coast of Hood Canal. In 2008, LLTK established a relationship with the recreational fishers' association Puget Sound Anglers (PSA) to help with field and hatchery related work. PSA is now our primary volunteer source.
• Are responsible for the monitoring/field work for four of the eight project streams (Little Quilcene, Duckabush, Dosewallips rivers and continued monitoring of the Hamma Hamma River), which includes redd surveys, adult hook-and-line sampling, juvenile parr sampling, egg collection on the Duckabush River, and the operation of two smolt traps, one located on the Duckabush River and the other on the Hamma Hamma River.
• Rear the steelhead for two of the three treatment streams at LLTK's Lilliwaup Hatchery (Duckabush and Dewatto).