Yukon River Chinook Salmon Hatchery Augmentation Feasibility Assessment

Significant declines in Canadian-origin Yukon River Chinook salmon over the past 15 years have prompted recent focused discussions exploring stock restoration as a means to support Canadian basin-wide Chinook salmon recovery.

A key salmon restoration element includes the use of conservation hatchery technology to improve survival in the early life history stages (egg to fry/smolt) to potentially speed recovery efforts. Conservation hatcheries release artificially propagated fish into natural spawning and rearing habitat; as adults, these fish will return to spawn naturally to contribute to the wild population.

In anticipation of increasing interest in Canadian-origin Yukon River Chinook salmon stock restoration projects, this project proposes to assess existing operations and capacity of local hatchery and incubation facilities and to explore potential regional hatchery coordination to better support near-term stock restoration projects within the territory.