U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Transportation Program

Biomark started a new project in 2005 providing tagging services for a COE funded project conducted by the USFWS and NOAA Fisheries. This multi-year project was designed to evaluate survival of endangered sub-yearling fall Chinook salmon transported around, and migration through hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. In 2005, approximately 170,000 fish were tagged at Dworshak NFH, transported to the Snake or Clearwater River, and released. These fish were reared in cold water to retard growth in order to mimic wild fish migration and survival.

In 2006 the study replicated the 2005 study and also included additional production fish that were tagged at Lyons Ferry Hatchery in Washington and Umatilla Hatchery in Oregon. The tagged fish were released at several remote release facilities throughout the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. In 2008, additional production fish were added to the study and tagged at Irrigon Hatchery in Oregon. The project continued in 2009 with over 460,000 fish being tagged at hatcheries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Since its inception in 2005, Biomark has PIT-tagged over 1.6 million fish for this project. The project continued in 2010 with approximately 536,000 fish tagged and released. This project will be repeated in 2011.