A SURVEY OF HEALTHY NATIVE STOCKS OF ANADROMOUS SALMONIDS IN THE PACIFIC-NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA

This report summarizes a survey of healthy native stocks of anadromous salmonids in the Pacific Northwest and California. We used a question naire approach combined with spatial analysis to describe the status a nd distribution of stocks considered to be in relatively good conditio n. These stocks now constitute a small fraction of the region's histor ic anadromous salmonid resource but are critical to maintaining curren t resource productivity. Several agencies have developed, or are in th e process of developing, computerized databases that will help organiz e predominantly quantitative data on native stocks of anadromous salmo nids. Our survey supplements those efforts by summarizing some of the knowledge of biologists familiar with the stocks and by making status assessments that at times go beyond conservative analyses of quantitat ive data. The survey identified 99 healthy native wild stocks of salmo n and steelhead that biologists consider to be at least one-third as a bundant as would be expected without human impacts, including 20 consi dered at least two-thirds as abundant. More than three-quarters of the se stocks are fall chinook, chum salmon, or winter steelhead in Puget Sound or coastal watersheds of Oregon or Washington. Fewer healthy pop ulations remain of summer steelhead and coho, pink, and sockeye salmon and spring or summer chinook. We suggest that healthy stocks provide unique opportunities for conservation and research that are at least a s important to the future of the region's anadromous salmonids as thos e associated with at-risk stocks.