Establishing a Parentage-Based Tagging Method for Chinook Salmon

Description

The current management of hatchery reared Chinook Salmon in British Columbia relies heavily on coded-wire tagging (CWT) methods to track individuals released into the wild. These tags can be costly on a large scale, and can only be applied to a portion of juvenile fish upon their release. Though it can be an effective way of quantifying certain metrics, CWTs cannot be used to determine parentage, family survival, or reproductive success. Developing an alternative to CWTs that can increase fidelity, cost-effectiveness, and potential applications is a critical innovation to hatchery management.

This project consists of genotyping Chinook Salmon hatchery broodstock to establish parentage-based tagging (PBT) as a stock management method. PBT may replace CWT using a single genetic assay that can scan several hundred single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at once. Genotyping all broodstock will enable the identification of all juveniles, instead of the ~10% typically tagged using CWTs. Complete tagging of juveniles allows researchers to accurately track their activity and the effectiveness of introducing hatchery reared juveniles into struggling fish stocks. This project builds on research previously conducted in 2014 that applied PBT to Coho Salmon.

The project has three main phases:

1. Establish multi-locus SNP genotypes of all Chinook Salmon broodstock used in 2016 and 2017 in BC hatcheries where juveniles are currently marked with CWTs prior to release.
2. Genotype known-origin and known-age juvenile Chinook Salmon to evaluate accuracy of PBT assignments.
3. Genotype returning Chinook Salmon at selected hatcheries, as well as all individuals with a CWT that are collected from commercial fisheries.

This initiative will demonstrate that PBT is a more accurate and cost-efficient alternative to traditional CWT methods, and will provide an example for the method to be applied to the conservation efforts with other fish species.

Scientific title for this project: Parentage-based tagging (PBT) of Chinook Salmon in British Columbia

Program Name

Genomics Research and Development Initiative (GRDI)

Years

2017 - 2019

Principal Investigators

Terry Beacham
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Publications

Beacham, T. D., C. Wallace, C. MacConnachie, K. Jonsen, B. McIntosh, J. R. Candy, and R. E. Withler. 2018. Population and individual identification of Chinook Salmon in British Columbia through parentage-based tagging and genetic stock identification with single nucleotide polymorphisms. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 75: 1096-1105.