STEELHEAD TROUT

Rainbow trout being held by fisherman

Carl B. Schreck, Hiram Li, Shaun Clements, Jeremy Romer, David Noakes, Neil Thompson

Latin name: Oncorhynchus mykiss

Taxonomic analysis of Northwest populations revealed stock structuring in steelhead trout. It included populations throughout the Columbia and Rogue river basins. This provided the first basis such groupings that are now part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing and recovery process. These projects were done in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Bonneville Power Administration. Work was also done for the Bonneville Power Administration Oregon Department of Fish and wildlife and an NGO that found that juvenile steelhead migrants experience significant mortality by bird predation in the Columbia River estuary. In small coastal streams the predation-related mortality averages about 50% in the last 1.5 Km before the ocean. Present studies have developed techniques for artificial rearing of juvenile steelhead with wild-like migratory behavior. Our laboratory produces these fish for researchers attempting to increase survival of ESA-listed steelhead in the Willamette basin that must pass through reservoirs and high-head dams. To date, we have provided about 20,000 such fish to researchers from the U.S. Geological Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the US. Army Corps of Engineers, and the private sector (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory).

Publications:

Redding, J.M., and C.B. Schreck. 1979. Possible adaptive significance of certain enzyme polymorphisms in steelhead trout (Salmo gairdneri). Journal Fisheries Research Board Canada 36:544-55l.

Winter, G.W., C.B. Schreck, and J.D. McIntyre. 1980. Meristic comparison of four stocks of steelhead trout (Salmo gairdneri). Copeia 1980:160-162.

Schreck, C.B. 1980. Research perspectives for management of wild steelhead trout. Proceedings 2nd Wild Trout Symposium, Yellowstone National Park, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1979:26-31

Sower, S.A., C.B. Schreck, and M. Evenson. 1983. Effects of steroids and steroid antagonists on growth, gonadal development, and RNA/DNA ratios in juvenile steelhead trout. Aquaculture 32:243-254.

Romer, J.D., C.A. Leblanc, S. Clements, J.A. Feguson, M.L. Kent, D. Noakes, and C.B. Schreck.  2013.  Survival and behavior of juvenile steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in two estuaries in Oregon.  Environmental Biology of Fish. 96:849-863.

Romer, J.D., A.I. Gitelman, S. Clements, and C.B. Schreck.  2015.  Designing a monitoring program to estimate estuarine survival of anadromous salmon smolts: simulating the effect of sample design on inference. PLoS One.10:e013291  2 .doi:10.137/journal.pone0132912.

Thompson, N.F., C.A. Leblanc. J.D. Romer, C.B. Schreck, M.S. Blouin, D.L. Noakes.  2015. Sex-biased survivorship and differences in migration of wild steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) smolts from two coastal Oregon rivers.  Ecology of Freshwater Fish. 98:1-10.